School: Both Íseal (roll number 16744)
- Location:
- Boheeshil, Co. Kerry
- Teacher: Séamus Ua Conchobhair
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0470, Page 059
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- XML School: Both Íseal
- XML Page 059
- XML “Saint Stephen's Day”
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- Saint Stephen's day falls on the 26th of December. On that day some of the school boys dress in comical clothes and go from house to house searching for money for the wren.The night before hand they make hats from sheaves of oats. This means they make four parts of the sheaf and weave them on each other in the same shape of a hat. Then a cloth is shaped like a persons face. Then the boys put holes in it for the eyes, and nose, and mouth.On Saint Stephen's morning they dress up in the following. They get a shirt and put it on outside their clothes. They put on the already fixed cloth on their faces and the hats on their heads. When they go into every house they say to the household "something for the wren." If anyone of the household ask them to sing they following."The wren the wren the king of all birds
On Saint Stephens day he was caught in the furze
With sticks and stones we broke his bones
And we carried him home in a holly bush"Afterwards the people of the house give them a sixpence or something for the wren. Then they come home and divide the money between them.Many people say the(continues on next page)
- Collector
- Mary Coffey
- Gender
- Female
- Address
- Cloon East, Co. Kerry
