What do you call the St Stephen's Day singers/dancers/music players.

Kovu

So, tell us! And if you choose other, please let us know the name

patsy_mccabe

Always the wren boys or 'going on the wren' here. We used to always go out here. Spend the money then that night on the beer.
Nobody has called here for years though.

Farrell

Mummers to bury the wren here.
As a child I was lucky to see the Killeshandra Wren boys in action, good show, straw hats suits & all.
Sad to see it has died

greysides

From Facebook:

Pilgrimage in Medieval Ireland
Yesterday at 08:20 ·

Today is St Stephen's day, in Ireland there was a tradition of the Wren Boy Procession. People would dress up in old clothes and paint their faces, wear straw hats and travel from door to door singing, dancing and playing music on the 26 December when they demanded money to bury the wren. Originally, young boys and men known as ‘The Wren Boys’ would go out into the woods. They would hunt for and then kill a wren and then parade the dead bird through the town on top of a decorated pole over time luck for the wren the hunt became symbolic. No wrens are harmed in modern times.
The Wren was hunted as he was blamed for betraying the Christian martyr St. Stephen when he was in hiding by making noises, hence the reason for hunting the Wren on St. Stephen’s Day.
The festival may have originated from Pagan times. The wren was also known as a wran and a number of songs grew up around the tradition. The most popular one (this, based upon a variant used in Cork) goes:

The wran, the wran, the king of all birds,

St Stephens’s Day was caught in the furze.

Up with the kettle and down with the pan,

Give us a penny to bury the wran.

The wren boy tradition still takes place in some villages in Ireland and has recently been revived in Dublin city. Just to stress no birds are harmed.

For a more detailed account of this tradition see
http://www.ouririshheritage.org/page_id__70_path__0p4p.aspx

CloughCasey1

Kovu wrote: »

So, tell us! And if you choose other, please let us know the name

Used to do it as a kid. Out all day and come home with 80squids! Dunno what you were preforming to gather 200!

Kovu

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

Used to do it as a kid. Out all day and come home with 80squids! Dunno what you were preforming to gather 200!

Was out with my brother and cousin, so you got a fiver or more at most places. But we did cover a lot of houses, almost up to the Longford border!

_Brian

Wrenboys here but haven't seen them in maybe 20 years round here.

Muckit

wrenboys or mummers. we did the houses when we were in national school then the pubs when were teenagers. You'd get chancers then coming in as you were playing going around shaking their baskets collecting 'our' money!! You'd get wise then and lose them in the street and try get to the best pubs before them!!

I said

Mummers

byhookorbycrook

We call them "Wran Boys" big tradition at home in North Cork and big event in Dingle each year.

Merrion

Rentboys

The Mother in Law mispronounces Wrenboys and nobody has the heart/nerve to inform her of the magnitude of her mistake.

byhookorbycrook

Merrion wrote: »

Rentboys

The Mother in Law mispronounces Wrenboys and nobody has the heart/nerve to inform her of the magnitude of her mistake.

I really did LOL.

tom_k

What a great thread. Was just talking abut this yesterday with my mother in law, shes from rural Galway and remembered the Wren (Wran) boys calling in her youth. I remember them visiting when I was a child in Mayo over 30 years ago with a live wren in a cage or box.

The song or poem went:

Dreoilín, dreoilín, rí na néan,
Is mór a mhuirthín, is beag é féin,
Lá le Stiofáin a gabhadh é,
Is tabhair dhom pingin a chuirfeas é.

Roughly translated as:
Wren,wren king of birds,
His brood is big, he's small himself,
On St. Stephens day he was caught,
Give me a penny to bury him.

Here in Mayo we called them the mummers, not sure of the origin of that word. The song as Gaeilge was usually followed by an English language version as in greysides earlier post.

Reggie.

Wrenboys