My earliest memories of St Steven's day would certainly include the
'wren' or 'wran' boys coming around to the doors of the houses early
in the morning. You would first hear them at the neighbouring houses,
getting louder and louder until the racket would arrive at our door. I
call it a racket because they would beat out the time of the song on the
front door with a large bunch of ivy. The song they sang in my part of
Cork was quite often unrecognisable but quite often went like this:
The wran the wran the king of all birds,
Up in the holly and ivy tree,
Whether its big or whether its small,
Give us a copper and we'll leave ye alone.
Knock at the knocker,
Ring at the bell,
Give us a copper,
For singing so well.
In our lane one house was always avoided, as the woman of the house was
well known for emptying the contents of a chamber pot out of the upstairs
window over the unwelcome callers. She became known locally as 'Molly
Chamberpots'.
