School: Milverton (roll number 15569)

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1. The Wren Boys (continued)

   

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   The Wren Boys.
   The wren boys gather together on St. Stephen's night. They meet at the Black Hills cross roads at about 6 p.m. They dress in skirts and straw hats, blacken their faces with a burned cork. There is at least one member to represent each of the following characters:- Tom Fool, Joe Butcher, Dickey Dought, Prince George, the little Doctor, the Wren and Ruin Rhyme. Tom Fool is their accepted leader.
   One of the members carries a furze bush in which is the dead body of a wren which has been captured and killed in the earliest part of the day. The members of the party bring musical instruments with them such as mouth organs, fiddles, melodeons and drums. They proceed from the cross roads to the first house which Tom Fool enters first. On entering the house he quote the following lines:-
   "Here comes me Tom Fool with my bladder and staff
   I did not comes here to make you cry but I came to make you laugh
   Up with the kettle and down with the pan
   A shilling or sixpence to bury the Wren".
   The following chorus is then sun by all the members:-
   "And if you don't believe what I say
   Enter Joe Butcher and clear the way".
   Here Joe Butcher enters with knife in hand and states,
   "Here come I, Joe butcher, with my knife and steel
   I cut up a cow from head to heal
   Cut her in slices and put her on the pan

   (continues on next page)

   

   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)
         1. Feast of St Stephen (~402)

   Language

   English

   Informant

   Patrick Murphy

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Killalane, Co. Dublin