Wren Day: ‘Those that went before us kept it going from generation to generation’

Lá an Dreolín, or Wren Day, in Dingle, and the rain held off for a celebration like no other, alive with colour and music and madcap humour in the darkest month of the year.

Once a vibrant rural custom, the Wren, with its music, dance, masks and wild straw costumes, has died elsewhere but has managed to survive and is thriving in Dingle.

The Wren is an ancient Dingle celebration. Four marching bands, in costume, each led by a hobby horse and accompanied by musicians, parade around and to the outskirts of the town for an event that starts at lunchtime and takes around two hours. Afterwards, the groups go pub to pub playing music, and festivities continue late into the evening.

On this St Stephen’s Day, the largest of four Dingle wren groups, The Green and Gold, based in O’Flaherty’s pub, had no fewer than 150 musicians, and “straws”, taking part behind the traditional hobby horse.

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Noel O’Murchú, who is 45 years with the Green and Gold, says no-one can figure which of the groups is the oldest. The tradition has lived on, and that, for him and others is the important thing.

“Those that went before us kept it going, ó ghlúin go glúin, from generation to generation. We kept it going. And hopefully those that come after us will keep it going,” he said.

On the Mall, as they set forth, the Green and Gold met the red hobby horse of the Goat Street group, to loud shouts and drum rolls. Further along were the blue and white John Street, or Sráid Eoin, Wren.

For Paul McKenzie, who lives part of the year in Dingle and the rest in Brooklyn, this was his 20th year with the Green and Gold. He has no doubt it was originally a pagan festival.

The 2023 Wren had plenty of modern references. Goat Street had four Squid Games characters, much to the delight of children. The Green and Gold had the Teletubbies. Beasts like the madra rua or fox loomed large, joining birds and farm animals and Picasso-like masks.

But the traditional straw costume remains central. People get together at night over a few weeks to make the straw suits, skirts, capes and hats, from long sheaves of oat straw.

“Strawboys” is not a term you will hear in Dingle, Declan Malone of John Street Wren explained.

“You will be asked if you will ‘carry straw’ this year,” Declan said.

He doesn’t “carry straw” since he is with the musicians. He has no doubt the wren in Dingle and elsewhere is a pagan tradition, but no one analyses it too deeply.

“We do it because it was the way it was always done. People have forgotten why. Why do we do it? Because we do it. That’s why!” he laughs philosophically.

On the quays in Dano’s pub, the Green and White Wren prides itself as the most inclusive in Dingle. Lorna Holderied and her niece Emily Baltschun (11) said their group had been revived in the 1990s and was now the second-biggest Wren in town.

Vivienne Sayers, an events manager and a loyal member of the Green and White, was home from New York – the next parish to Dingle, as Myles na gCopaleen might put it.

“This is only the start,” said one member, returning from the musical pilgrimage at around 3pm. There was some expectation St Stephen might triumph over the impending Storm Gerrit and the music spilled on to the streets of Dingle until late in the night.

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