Day of the Wren


A wren (dreoilín) photographed in November.
It was customary on St Stephen’s Day for ‘wrenboys’ to call around to perform a song or two, when I was growing up in rural Ireland. Nowadays, masked men turning up at the door demanding money elicits a different response. Even where wrenboys do turn up either to parade or perform, they don’t actually hunt a wren (as was the original tradition).