School: Díseart, Inis
- Location:
- Dysert, Co. Clare
- Teacher: Séamus Mac Glúin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0613, Page 031
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- (continued from previous page)If that candle happens to quench some one of the family will die. Then the women go on their knees and ask three requests for before Xmas and they say a prayer called The Hail and Blest fifteen times a day. On Xmas night a block called the Xmas block is left burning and the door is unbolted. At twelve o'clock every animal on the earth is supposed to bend its knee. On St Stephen's day, although it is not a holiday of obligation, the people do not work. When the children get up and have eaten their breakfast they dress themselves in old clothes and go from house to house gathering money for the wren. When they return at night they count the money and share it equally between them. These boys are called wren boys because they kill a wren and hang it on a holly tree when tbhey are going around. On St Stephen's day the people eat no meat and they gain an indulgence. Some years St Stephen's day falls on a Sunday(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Eileen Keane
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Drumcurreen, Co. Clare
