School: Séipéal na Carraige (roll number 5478)
- Location:
- Rockchapel, Co. Cork
- Teacher: Donncha Ó Géibheannaigh
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0351, Page 174
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- XML “The Strawboys”
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- A very old custom at weddings is for men, who are not invited, to dress themselves up in all sorts of disguises and process to the house.
They wind straw round their legs, paint their faces or wear masks.
They take musical instruments with them and march along four deep just like the wren-boys, usually they have crops in their hands. They get drink and food at the wedding house and give a display of step-dancing. In some parts of Ireland, they are called sappers.
Most people look forward to the coming of the Straw-boys, but sometimes they are not welcome. A few years ago the Stray-boys visited John Curtin's house in Stagmount. They were not left in, and they felt very sore about it. There was a cooked ham on the table in the sitting-room and no-one there. The window was a little open, they pushed it up, without making any noise, but could not get in, as the window as too small. The table was too far to reach so they got a pike in one of the out-houses stuck it in the ham and got it out the window. They enjoyed a good feed of ham a few fields from the house.
- Collector
- Cornelius Fitzpatrick
- Gender
- Male
- Informant
- Michael Geaney
- Gender
- Male
- Address
- Rockchapel, Co. Cork
