The wran, the wran, The king of the Birds St. Stephen's Day Was caught in the furze Up with the kettle And down with the pan Give a penny to bury the wran.
St. Stephen’s Day, December 26th was known as Lá an Dróilín, the Day of the Wren. One origin story was that on this day, a chirping wren gave Stephen’s hiding place away and the saint was captured and martyred by Roman soldiers. To settle the score in Ireland, musicians and dancers travelled the countryside in disguise, claiming they had trapped the little bird who betrayed Stephen.
Another theory is that when the a flock of wrens warned the Danes of a Irish secret night attack on the camp, causing losses on the Ieish side. off the Irish with heavy loss.
However, there does seem to have been reports of an old custom where a wren was beaten out of the bushes and its body hung on a holly bush. The two origin stories above may have been retro-fitted to explain an old and mysterious custom.
Certainly, well into living memory the Wran boys, disguised musicians and revellers travelled from house to house, fortified by pudding and porter with much, singing dancing, drinking and general fun!
Here ara a selection of theier reports.
St Stephen’s day was a wonderful day in Ireland; Oh, it used to be. That was the day of the Wren Boys; music, and everything. Oh it was lovely. That was a good day. There wasn’t much cooking that day.No nothing You hadn’t time to eat it.
There was dancing that night. In my tradition, you wouldn’t be allowed to dance. You’d have to wait to St Stephen’s night when you were eighteen years of age. That’s your first dance.
You could dress up. You don’t want anyone to know you. You could go out on the road, have a little song, pretend you’re carrying the little robin. You know, sing, and they won’t know you. You don’t go to a house that will know you. But when you are dressed in a man’s suit you have to be very careful because, you know…. You’d steal man’s clothes and everything
This happened to my sister… So she said she would go on St Stephen’s day, and she dressed up. She got a thought that when we go to the first pub, we’d go to the back and dance by ourselves. But underneath, she had a dress tucked away for fear that someone would take the clothes off her to see who was this person. Some of them would put you out or would let you dance away on the floor. There could be all men or you could be all women. You didn’t know. We were all dressed the same.
It isn’t celebrated like that now. Not in years. The tradition is dead.
You had to be disguised. It was very important because if you were known you’d get nothing.You might use bits of net curtain
If St Stephen’s day was wet you couldn’t use accordions or tambourines. You couldn’t if it was wet.
The wren boys went out collecting the money. They would dance the whole night for the money …. and for the drink. That was the wren dance.
It was important to travel out of your place, and then they wouldn’t know where you’d come from.
Then you’d travel by car out of your area and that became the way. When they got the cars they’d be able to travel to the towns and you got more money in the towns.
You had them all together and at night they’d come to the bars. I seen them coming one night. This surprised them. There was this man who was after coming from Canada and he brought out a five pound note, that’s forty years ago, and he handed it to the woman, and that was talked about for years after. Five pound at that time, it’s equal to about two hundred now.
You’d get in a porter barrel for the wren night. And soft drinks for the ladies – they’d have to be there too. Each person took it in turn in having the party, then everybody had a party. It went from house to house. This night it would be in my house, the next night it would be in your house. It wouldn’t be at every house, some wouldn’t get the porter barrel because they wouldn’t get the crowd – then you’d be sorry in the face.
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