There is something magical in this place at Christmas

IAM as stuffed as the turkey was yesterday! It is all over now as we look for suggestions on how to use up what is left over and make it palatable. Darling Derry is great for that.

We took my sister Margaret up on her kind invitation to have Christmas dinner in her house in Westport, Co. Mayo. She has a magnificent view of Croagh Patrick from her sitting room where all is peaceful with the world.

We finished up in work after lunch on Christmas Eve. The atmosphere in the restaurant was electric. I have been doing this job for nearly 30 years and it never gets boring — just tiring. I have been enjoying the break and the chance to spend quality time with my family.

Last year we had everyone at our house. It was great, but it is even better when someone else takes on the mantle and organises Christmas for us. Darling Derry cooked the ham in Dublin, but everything was already well under way when we arrived. We were made to sit down and relax. It is great being the big sister in the family — don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?

Last year we had 24 around our table and all our family about for days. This year my sister was lucky to have only 10 of us — a very manageable number. She is very relaxed and it is heaven when someone serves you after you have been serving all year.

Westport has been voted the best place to live in Ireland so many times. I can see why. The town has everything you could ever wish for. It is so easy to get around and there is no shortage of places to eat, drink and, indeed, hotels to stay in.

MY little sister Margaret lived in London, New York and Chicago before she married and settled with her husband who says ‘The West Is Best’. The big plus for us is that we get to visit and always have a lovely place to stay.

Christmas Mass was in the little church in Cushlough, which is like something out of a storybook of yesteryear. There is something magical about this place at Christmas.

We are very much at home in Westport as Margaret, Frank and his family have always made us very welcome. We would like to stay on longer but we are open from December 28 right up to and including New Year’s Eve for dinner and need to be in Dublin.

We are making the best of our short time in this beautiful spot. Memories are something we make every day. Mum is 86 years young and we know she’s not going to be around forever, but she still rules the roost.

Spending time with loved ones at Christmas and New Year is precious. I am the oldest of six children. Three of us are in Ireland, two in Chicago and another in Cheshire so with most of the children in school, holidays are a time for us to get together to catch up and talk about times past and times to come.

Today, December 26, is St Stephen’s Day. In Ireland of old it was also known as Wren Day — Lá an Dreoilín. Other variants include Day of the Wren, or Hunt the Wren Day. This name comes from a very old tradition focused around the wren, a tiny bird.

Wren Day is a very old tradition and was once practised throughout most of Ireland up until the middle of the last century. According to folklore, the wren was blamed for betraying the Christian martyr St Stephen when he was in hiding, by making noises, hence the reason for hunting it on St Stephen’s Day.

Traditionally on this day, groups of boys and young men called The Wren Boys would dress up in old clothes and paint their faces. They then travelled from door to door singing, dancing and playing music demanding money to ‘bury the wren’.

The tradition has mostly faded out but it is still carried on in pockets of the country, including Co. Mayo. I have heard about this but have never seen them in person and we are all looking forward to seeing them later on.

I am told we will be alerted to their arrival by loud drums when they approach my sister’s front door. And apparently they make quite a racket.

They dress mostly in white, with assorted bits of tinsel, straw and holly attached to hats of all descriptions.

They will file in and entertain us with a few songs, some traditional airs expertly played on fiddles, bodhran, tin whistles and flutes, and sean nós dancing.

The entire performance will last only 10 minutes and they will play themselves out again, back into the night and on to the next house!

The modern wren tradition now also incorporates street parades. In Dingle, the wren tradition features a pantomime-type horse with a wooden head, snapping jaws and a body made from cloth stretched across a timber frame, it is worn on the shoulders of one of the members. This spectacle has to be seen to believed!

Wouldn’t it be great if the tradition was reinstated all over the country? It is part of our heritage after all.