School: Killyconnan (B.)
- Location:
- Killyconnan, Co. Cavan
- Teacher: P. Kearney
Open data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Killyconnan (B.)
- XML Page 099
- XML “Festival Customs”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- On St. Stephen's Day boys and grown-up men gather together. They get a little box into which they place a few feathers pretending that they have a wren in the box. They then go round from house to house saying the following rhyme:-
The wren, the wren, the king of all birds
On St Stephen's Day she was caught in her furze
Although she is little her honour is great,
Rise up landlady and give us a treat
Monty we want and money we crave
If we don't get the money we'll soon make the grave
Up with the kettle and own with the pan
A penny or towpence or bury the wren.
At each house they generally get money. If they got no money they would bury the "wren". It is thought unlucky to have a wren buried near the door. When the grown-ups get(continues on next page)- Collector
- Andrew Smith
- Gender
- Male
- Informant
- Mr Patrick Smith
- Gender
- Male
- Age
- 60
- Address
- Knockanoark, Co. Cavan