North Atlantic Skyline - - Photographs from the west of Ireland (Galway, Mayo, Clare, Limerick, Roscommon and even Leitrim)

Wren boys

A hobbity face or a detail from a rusting cattle feeder?

Our St. Stephen's Day was disturbed when a group of masked men called the door demanding money with menace. OK, they were kids, and they would have settled for sweets. As for the menace, well. they did threaten to sing a second verse of that bloody Westlife song.

I wonder what my Chinese and Eastern European neighbours made of the Wrenboy tradition - a bunch of little munchkins with Scream masks rasp out a muffled couple of verses, give a little dance (I'm being charitable here) and then stick out their hands expectantly.