School: Naomh Eoin, Cill Choinnigh (roll number 1301)

Location:
Kilkenny, Co. Kilkenny
Teacher:
Bráthair Tomás Mac Binéid
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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0856, Page 136

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The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0856, Page 136

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  1. XML School: Naomh Eoin, Cill Choinnigh
  2. XML Page 136
  3. XML “The Wren Day”

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    crave, and if we did not give him money he'd sweep us all to the grave." He would be followed by Black Jack "with all his family on his back, if you did not blieve in all they'd say the wren would be called in and he'd clear the way:" All the party would then join in the chorus
    "The wren the wren the king of all birds
    St Stephen's day she was caught in the furze
    Although she was little
    Her honour was great
    Rise up young laddie and give us the treat
    We chased her up and we chased her down
    And we chased her into Lavistown.
    We broke her wings and we cracked her tail
    And we buried her under the Avenue gate
    So up with the kettle and down with the pan
    Give us our money and let us begone."
    Having got their money they were gone to the next house and again the occupants were disturbed with
    Here we come the mummer boys,
    We came here to make no noise.
    We came here to sport and play
    All upon the mummer's day.
    (continues on next page)
    Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.
    Topics
    1. events
      1. events (by time of year) (~11,476)
        1. Feast of St Stephen (~402)
    Language
    English
    Collector
    Martin Dwyer
    Gender
    Male
    Age
    11
    Occupation
    Schoolboy
    Address
    Greenridge, Co. Kilkenny
    Informant
    Stephen Dwyer
    Gender
    Male
    Age
    40
    Address
    Greenridge, Co. Kilkenny