 Straw Boys of the Northwest
Ireland's traditional party crashers in strange hats
If you like unusual headgear, you'll envy the Straw Boys, one of
Ireland's most eccentric traditions.
Researching the Straw Boys is a little like studying the Loch Ness
monster. Everyone who writes about them seems to give a different
explanation of who they are, where they came from and what they do.
Whenever they started, the Straw Boys seem to have survived in modern
Irish life - at least in the western counties of Ireland where they
almost certainly originated. They're most often described as an
exceptionally odd bunch of party crashers - young men who appear
suddenly at a wedding, possibily uninvited, and dance with the bride
and groom before departing as swiftly as they arrived. The only thing
that's consistent in all the stories about them is the way they conceal
their identities behind stylized hats made of straw.
 Still Dancing
Many present-day accounts say that the Straw Boys still appear at
weddings from the Achill Island area (northwest county Mayo) on down
through the middle west. They're familiar enough, in fact, that some
wedding planners offer Straw Boys as a feature you can choose, along
with champagne and chocolate cake, from the standard event menu. For
about $250, you can apparently have a group of 4-5 of these fellows
enter the dinner room, accompanied by a fiddle, dance around the tables
for a few minutes, and then lift the bride from her chair and carry her
out to the dance floor to begin the "Ceili."
According to Jane Fitzgerald, speaking on a wedding website
(http://solair.eunet.yu/~spartan/article.htm), "they were boys who
rustled cattle. After the job, they'd avoid capture by dressing in
straw hats and sneaking into a wedding. They'd drink and dance but
never talk. Eventually they got to be a sign of good luck. It's called
'strawing a wedding.'" Another wedding planner advertizes Straw Boys
who "dance around the bride and groom to protect them from evil
spirits." But many traditional accounts say the boys don't appear at
the wedding at all, but at the bride's house before the wedding.
Several other writers say that in olden days, weddings were usually for
family members only, and that the Straw Boys led a delegation of
friends into the town square to welcome the bride and groom home from
their honeymoon. Homeless?
Michael MacCarthy Morrogh's excellent book, "The Irish Century," links
the Straw Boys to a different tradition, calling them "Irish
equivalents of the many groups of mummers who went around acting out
traditional plays and songs at Christmas and other times of the year in
England. They expected to be rewarded with food and drink in return for
the entertainment they offered." Film buffs may recall a portrayal of
1950's vintage Irish mummers in 1992's "The Playboys," starring Aidan
Quinn. The history of travelling performers, says Morrogh, may have
arisen out of "a tradition of young, well-educated but homeless men
looking for hospitality in return for music and song." A photo in his
book portrays a rather jaunty group of Straw Boys, faces concealed by
their odd straw hats, visiting an Irish bride before her wedding to
play music for her. Burying the Wren
They seem to be mixed up at times with another group known as the "Wren
Boys." These other "boys" go from house to house on St. Stephens' day
(the day after Christmas) singing songs and collecting money to bury a
wren, who has died from a collision with the furze, a yellow bramble
bush prevalent in the west. They repeat this poem as they go:
"The wren, the wren the king of all birds
St. Steven's day he was caught in the furze
Up with the kettle and down with the pan
Give us some money to bury the wren"
The Wren boys, often around 10 years of age, go about with a decorated
holly branch, symbolizing the furze. The money they collect supposedly
goes to pay for a"Wren Dance" that evening. It's not really clear
whether the Straw Boys are part of this ritual as well, though they're
lumped into Christmas celebrations in many books.
If you're in Sligo or Mayo and you happen to come across a Straw Boy,
ask him what's the idea of the blinkin' hat, and drop us a line with his answer
"The Irish Century," by Michael MacCarthy Morrogh. 1998 Robert Rinehard Publisher.
Straw Boy illustrations by Nick Werber
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