A Troupe of Wren Boys in Ireland (Image Creative Commons)

When I first came to live in Limerick some 30 years ago, I was totally astonished to have dozens of musicians and dancers arriving into my house throughout  St Stephen’s Day, 26 December. From about 10 am onwards, they arrived. The earliest were  small groups of local children with their musical instruments, often as young as 5 or 6 years of age. The great cultural network of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, active across much of Ireland, ensures that there are musicians in abundance of all ages to take part in events. In parts of Ireland, St Stephen’s Day,or Lá Fhéile Stiofán in Irish, is known as ‘Lá an Dreoilín’, meaning the Day of the Wren or Wren’s Day. Announcing their arrival by loudly playing the bodhran (an Irish drum) as they make their way towards the door, and with barely enough time to shut the startled…

Lay out of kitchen garden at Irish Monastery 9th century from St Gallen in Switzerland in Tower House of Barryscourt Castle, East Cork.

Daphne Pochin Mould (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_Pochin_Mould) an article in the ‘Irish Gardener in July 2005 wrote about the conversion of the Bawn of Barrycourt Castle in East Cork. Using records from St. Gallen it was deduced that the contents of a Monastic garden would include onions, leeks, garlic, shallots celery and coriander, parsnips with cabbage, lettuce, chervil, chard, radish, dill and poppy.

The Reverend John Richardson, Rector of Belturbet, Co. Cavan, author of ‘The Great Folly, Superstition and idolatry of Pilgrimages in Ireland, Especially of that to St. Patrick’s Purgatory, together With an Account of the Loss that the public Sustaineth thereby, truly and impartially Represented his account at Ballyvourney, Co. Cork, 1727 of 13th century wooden statue of St. Gobnait (Patroness of Bee Keepers) as an antidote to small pox being kept by the O’Herlihys.

Courtesy Pilgrimages in Ireland. Peter Harbison Barrie and Jenkins 1991

‘Portable vessell of wicker, ordinarily used by the wild Irish’ by Thomas Phillips c 1685 and Gold boat from First Century BC.

From Peter Harbison’s book, Pilgrimage in Ireland