Cutty Wren

Ireland has a very similar tradition to that of the Cutty Wren [ FT348:74-76]. The Wren Boys are a rare and precious sight now, but at one time they were quite common in rural Ireland as they went from house to house on St Stephen’s Day (26 December). The young lads would also blacken up and wear rags and sometimes wicker masks. They would carry a long pole crowned with holly; in earlier times a dead wren would be used instead. They would go doorto-door singing and playing tin whistles and fiddles, and would be rewarded with food and coins. They would sing: The Wren, the Wren The King of the Birds On Stephen’s Day He was caught in the furze. Up with the kettle And down with the pan Give us your answer And let us be gone. In Counties Sligo and Leitrim the wren was associated with the otherworldly Cliona who liked to lure young boys to drown in the ocean. Apparently the Wren Boys once also roamed in the Isle of Man, Wales and France. They could be an eerie sight. “We were never ready for them,” one woman remembered. “They always arrived like an invasion from an outside world.” Paul Whyte, Dublin