School: Lenamore, Rathowen (roll number 5115)

Location:
Lenamore, Co. Longford
Teacher:
Brian Mac Tomas
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0769, Page 169

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0769, Page 169

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  1. XML School: Lenamore, Rathowen
  2. XML Page 169
  3. XML “The Wren Boys”

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  1. The custom of the Wren Boys is carried on in Ireland for the past century. Even the oldest man in the parish doesn't remember their origin. The Wren Boys go out in disguise on St. Stephen's day. Some time ago those who intended going to hunt the wren used to go out the day before and catch a wren to kill it, and when St. Stephen's day came they used to put it on a piece of stick and carry it in front of them, but this custom was too cruel to be continued.
    As Xmas Day is supposed to be very lonely all people
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)
        1. Feast of St Stephen (~402)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Brigid Kelly
    Gender
    Female