The Wren Boys

JupiterKid

I had dinner this evening in a good friend's house in rural North Cork and we were just visited by the wren boys. They were a group of local teenage boys who sang a song and recited a poem to collect money for charity. Growing up in Dublin, I didn't even know about the tradition of the Wren Boys in rural Ireland until a friend in university from Tipperary told me about it.

Apparently it has its origins in pagan times and is still going in the South and West of the country. In old times, the lads would carry around a wren in a cage.

Does anyone else know about the wren boys? Were you visited by wren boys today? Have you been a wren boy?

Donald Trump

JupiterKid wrote: »

I had dinner this evening in a good friend's house in rural North Cork and we were just visited by the wren boys. They were a group of local teenage boys who sang a so g and recited a poem to collect money for charity. Growing up in Dublin, I didn't even know about the tradition of the Wren Boys in rural Ireland until a friend in university from Tipperary told me about it.

Apparently it has its origins in pagan times and is still going in the South and West of the country. In old times, the lads would carry around a wren in a cage.

Does anyone else know about the wren boys? Were you visited by wren boys today? Have you been a wren boy?

I think you are missing a "t" there for the Dublin version


wrent boys

Coffee Fulled Runner

Still going strong in parts of Mayo and Sligo. Sometimes with real wrens which are hard to catch

ongarite

My Dad was a wren boy.
Used to go around the local houses in rural Mayo getting decent money on this day.
There used to be Wren Men too, like buskers who would go houses playing Trad music, would head to the local pubs too. They used to be dressed like straw men.

Fighting Tao

Charity? Are you sure you weren’t had?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Fighting Tao wrote: »

Charity? Are you sure you weren’t had?

:rolleyes: Wren Boys in many parts of the country have collected for charity for years.

Dr Crayfish

I would have thought it was rent not wren boys calling to your house Jupiter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdNP86KuU-I

Lá an Dreoilín will for me forever be associated with this gorgeous Sigerson Clifford song.

The Boys of Barr na Sráide

Author: Sigerson Clifford

Oh, the town, it climbs the mountains and looks upon the sea
At sleeping time or waking time, it’s there I’d like to be.
To walk again those kindly streets, the place where life began,
With the Boys of Barr na Sráide who hunted for the wren.

With cudgels stout they roamed about to hunt for the dreólín*
We searched for birds in every furze from Litir to Dooneen.
We danced for joy beneath the sky, life held no print nor plan
When the Boys of Barr na Sráide went hunting for the wren.

And when the hills were bleedin’ and the rifles were aflame
To the rebel homes of Kerry the Saxon strangers came,
But the men who dared the Auxies and fought the Black-and-Tan
Were the Boys of Barr na Sráide who hunted for the wren.

But now they toil in foreign soil where they have made their way
Deep in the heart of London or over on Broadway,
And I am left to sing their deeds and praise them while I can
Those Boys of Barr na Sráide who hunted for the wren.

And here’s a health to them tonight wherever they may be.
By the groves of Carham river or the slope of Bean ‘a Tí
John Daly and Batt Andy and the Sheehans, Con and Dan,
And the Boys of Barr na Sráide who hunted for the wren.

When the wheel of life runs out and peace come over me
Just take me back to that old town between the hills and sea.
I’ll take my rest in those green fields, the place where life began,
With those Boys of Barr na Sráide who hunted for the wren.

The wren boys are not just a west Munster thing; here are the lucht an dreoilín in Sandymount in Dublin today:

Fighting Tao

Jasper Raspy Igloo wrote: »

:rolleyes: Wren Boys in many parts of the country have collected for charity for years.

Of course. :rolleyes:

JupiterKid

Dr Crayfish wrote: »

I would have thought it was rent not wren boys calling to your house Jupiter

Heh heh!! . Nah...luckily I don't need to pay for horizontal action.

tayto lover

Loads of Wren Boys around Co. Cavan too.

freshpopcorn

I'm from North Cork and have heard of this the odd time in Villages but it mainly happens in the early morning and they'd be a mixture of ages involved.

SeaFields

We had them earlier. A few from the local youth club collecting on behalf of the club. Played some Irish music with a variety of instruments. We would have them every year in south Kerry.

JupiterKid

freshpopcorn wrote: »

I'm from North Cork and have heard of this the odd time in Villages but it mainly happens in the early morning and they'd be a mixture of ages involved.

Interesting. Well, my friends live at the edge of a village called Castletownroche and we were visited by five teenage boys aged between about 14 and 17 just under an hour ago.

endacl

Deleted User wrote: »

The wren boys are not just a west Munster thing; here are the lucht an dreoilín in Sandymount in Dublin today:

Also out in Clondalkin

donegaLroad

It was never a tradition in Donegal, what we had were called the Mummers and they could appear at any time during Christmas. I think they still do now and again.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer

I always did it as a kid in Mayo. I assumed it was a popular tradition throughout Ireland until I went to college and realised many places had never heard of it.

Speaking of which, I assumed Summer Solstice bonfires were also a nation-wide thing but was shocked to learn they weren't.

ForestFire

Christmas eve, large housing estate, 3 young kids, singing jingle bells, with a roses box to collect money, and Mammy or daddy driving along with them in the car.

Forgive my scepticism, but charity was the last place that money was going.

I'd call it child begging.

Hunchback

Good ******g luck

Gerrouradah garden

Beechwoodspark

ForestFire wrote: »

Christmas eve, large housing estate, 3 young kids, singing jingle bells, with a roses box to collect money, and Mammy or daddy driving along with them in the car.

Forgive my scepticism, but charity was the last place that money was going.

I'd call it child begging.

I would too and it’s a very different thing to the wren boys

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly

There's a smell of Satan about this.

krazyklown

We did the wren boys when we were kids, out in rural mayo. We would be gone all day, sing a verse of silent night and a friend used to sing the wild rover. Got over 300 pound one year between us, early 90s which was a great sum at the time for ten year olds. All the kids used to it in our class, you would dress up as well. Seems to have died away now where I am from.

pauliebdub

I've never seen them in rural Tipperary, must be a regional thing.

Duckworth_Luas

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly wrote: »

There's a smell of Satan about this.

The tradition of Wrenboys, Mummers or Strawboys was once commonplace throughout Ireland, and still can be found in many areas. There are still other regions in other countries where similar traditions also exist. What these regions have in common is a Celtic prehistory. So it's thought that this idea of catching and/or killing a Wren is druidic in origin and later became Christianised, like Halloween.

As a boy I was told that St Stephen, the first Christian martyr, tried to flee from his would be murders in the Holy Land and hid in a bush. His hiding place was given away by a wren. So Wrenboys actions was in retribution for being a little **** of a bird.

The wren was also know to us children as the "king of the birds". All species decided to find out which one was worthy to be the king. They decided to see who could fly the highest and they would be the regent. Different birds gave up in exhaustion until only the eagle remained. Satisfied that he was now the king, and himself exhausted, he began his decent. Then the wren, who had been hiding under the eagle's wing, popped out and claimed the crown. The little ****er!

So overall it's a mixture of pre-Christian stuff, some Christian superstition and nonsense brought back by crusaders in the Middle East, i.e. mummers.

sightband

Donald Trump wrote: »

I think you are missing a "t" there for the Dublin version


wrent boys

whats 'wrent'....oh wait, I think I get it, is it 'rent boys' as in male prostitute because phonetically it sounds the same? and only rent boys or male prostitutes come from dublin? cracking gag there...keep em coming hot and fast don, bit like a 'wrent' boy ;)eh? eh? eh?

DubInTheWest

Terrible stuff altogether! I was in the middle of watching the King George, a car reverses in effecting my concentration on the race, then a group of kids singing. Then assh0le parents looking in the window at all my empty cans of beer and me gambling. This 'tradition' should be banned, invasion of privacy. Big padlock on the gate next year for sure.

Buford T. Justice XIX

OP, take care when you talk about this. If you don't pronounce is as 'ran boys', you'll out yourself as an outsider as surely as pronouncing ewe as 'you' instead of 'yo'.

Greybottle

We used to do it in Roscommon back in the 1980's. Cycled around a lot of boreens and got a good lot of cash from it for the day. Full disguise, dressed as women (link to the holy wells and fairys). We'd make sure to finish up in the pubs and would make a proper killing there. Some others took over from us and they were better.

Then about 15 years ago, this local wagon would drive her kids around, no costume, no hiding, and would sing the first verse of Jingle Bells and that was it. She `would then blow the horn and shout at us to "Give them a few quid each and let me be going". I gave them a fiver, they looked at me in disgust and the year after that I never opened the door. They were told in the pubs to get lost. Pure money making racket, some others sadly tried to emulate them. Bollix to the lot of them.

Now there's a different crew, make a serious effort with a guitar, tin whistle and tambourine, and they've a huge repertoire of songs. They';; start at 12.00 and keep going till 8.00 pm in the pubs and get €600-800 between the three of them. But they make an effort and they're the only ones doing it at the moment.

It's part of a dying tradition, it was quite big until the 1960's. You stuck to your own patch or townlands, but the pubs were there for everybody. There would be fights between groups if somebody wandered into a different fight. But there's virtually nobody doing it now.