School: Cnoc, Abbeyleix (roll number 2324)
- Location:
- Knockardagur, Co. Laois
- Teacher: Seán Ó Huallacháin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0831, Page 173
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- XML School: Cnoc, Abbeyleix
- XML Page 173
- XML “Festival Customs”
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- Festival Customs.
St. Stephen's day is a great feast day. On that day school boys go from house to house gathering money. They get a holly bush decorated with coloured papers and a dead wren on the bush. When they go to a house they stand outside the door and they play music and sing - "The wren the wren the wren the king of birds.
St Stephen's day she was caught in the furze.
All tho' she was little her family was great.
Rise up our-Lady and give us a treat".These boys are called wren boys.
All the money they gather St. Stephen's day they divide evenely among themselves and spend it together.
On St. Bridget's night young men dress in women's clothes and vizards on their faces and go from house to house. When they come to the houses they go inside and dance and sing and play melodeons and fiddles.
They come about eight or nine o''clock(continues on next page)
- Collector
- null
- Gender
- Female
- Informant
- null
- Gender
- Male
