1. dúchas.ie
  2. The Schools' Collection
  3. An Gleann Ruadh, Cill Fhíonáin

School: An Gleann Ruadh, Cill Fhíonáin (roll number 3221)

Location:
Glenroe, Co. Limerick
Teacher:
Mícheál Mac Conmidhe
Browse
Mode:
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0511, Page 160

Archival Reference

The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0511, Page 160

Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.

See copyright details.

Download

Open data

Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

  1. XML School: An Gleann Ruadh, Cill Fhíonáin
  2. XML Page 160
  3. XML “The Wren Boys”

Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.

On this page

  1. The Wren Boys

    Share Share Post
    On St Stephens day the boys go hunting the wren.
    Some of the wran boys of this locality dress themselves in long coats and blacken their faces and some of them go in their every day clothes.
    They come to the door and some of them play the Mouth Horgan and others sing songs about the wran such as.
    The wran The wran
    The king of all birds
    St Stephens Day was caught in a bush
    From bush to bush,
    From tree to tree,
    At Caracales he broke his knee
    Up with the kettle and down with the pan
    Give me my answer and let me be gone,
    If your answer be too small,
    It wont do the poor wran boys at all,
    If your answer be the best,
    In heaven I hope your soul will rest,
    Get up young lad laddy,
    And give us a treat,
    I have a little box under my arm,
    And 2d or 3d will do it no harm,
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    History Edit
    Topics
    1. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)
        1. Feast of St Stephen (~402)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Kathleen O Brien
    Gender
    Female
    Address
    Glenroe, Co. Limerick