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An
Irish Wedding Custom
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a Sunday night in 1999 I'm enjoying a traditional music session in a country pub in
West Clare. That's nothing unusual. This is Gleeson's of Coore, a
house famous for it's Sunday sessions of music, dancing and
singing, but tonight is special. The bar is decorated with
balloons and there is a larger than average crowd. This is a party
to celebrate the return of a newly married couple from their
honeymoon. |
| Everyone's
in good humour, sipping their drinks, chatting, and listening to
the jigs and reels, when suddenly the door bursts open and the
room is invaded by a group of people wearing bizarre costumes.
Their faces are disguised in various ways, some are brandishing
sticks, and their colourful clothes are adorned with straw. |
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new arrivals take over the floor and some of them start dancing a
set, the traditional form of social dancing in County Clare. One
of them seeks out the bride and pulls her into the set. Another
one dances with the groom. There's a lot of good humoured
bantering between the party-goers and the "strangers",
some of whom have been recognised in spite of their disguises. |
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It's
obvious that the appearance of the strawboys hasn't been totally
unexpected as several people, including myself, produce cameras or
video cameras with which they record the event.
When they have finished their dance the invaders disappear as
suddenly as they arrived, leaving behind a floor littered with
fallen straw.
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Some
of them , probably all of them, it's hard to tell, come back later
to join the party, but this time they come in quietly,
individually, and wearing normal clothes. I overhear a discussion
about how one of them could be recognised by her shoes.
Later in the evening a second group of strawboys makes an
entrance, performs, then departs, in a similar manner to the first
group. |
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This
custom of Strawboys attending a wedding party is known in various
parts of Ireland, including Counties Fermanagh and Donegal. It
dates back at least to the early years of the nineteenth century.
In his chapter on Pre-Famine ireland, in the book Marriage In
Ireland, (1985, Art Cosgrave: ed) S.J Connolly, lecturer in
history at the university of Ulster, mentions "...The
attendance at wedding celebrations of the Strawboys, uninvited
guests fantastically dressed in straw, women's clothes and other
disguises, who claimed the right to dance with the bride and share
in the wedding feast."
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A
fuller description is given by Coimhin O Danachair, former
lecturer in folklore at University College Dublin, in another
chapter, Irish Folk Tradition, in the same book.
" Typical of the
old-time Irish wedding was the visit to the house where it
was celebrated of a group of up to a dozen young men of the
neighbourhood, in disguise. They danced with the bride and the
other women, entertained the company with music and songs, jokes
and capers. They usually wore conical straw caps pulled down over
their faces, and often cloaks, vests, sashes or belts skilfully
woven of straw. Hence their most popular names Buachailli tui,
soparai, strawboys, soppers. In most cases they were welcome,
and their failure to come would be regarded as a slight on the
family. Always they were neighbours of the bride or groom or both,
often their relatives."
Linda May Ballard, in her book Forgetting Frolic- Marriage
Traditions in Ireland (1998) says
"The most dramatic
interruption of traditional wedding ceremonies was that of the
strawboys. Although strawboys were better known in more southern
areas of Ireland, they were to be seen at weddings in parts of Co.
Fermanagh until the 1960s. Their name was derived from the fact
that they wore costumes of straw similar to those worn by
Christmas Rhymers, and their arrival was often thought to betoken
good luck to the young couple."
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References
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| Title |
Author |
Date |
Publisher |
| Marriage in Ireland |
Art Cosgrave (ed) |
1985 |
College Press |
Forgetting Frolic,
Marriage Traditions in Ireland |
Linda May Ballard |
1998 |
Inst.of Irish Studies QUB,
and Folklore Society. |
Set Dances of Ireland,
Tradition and Evolution |
Larry Lynch |
1989
&1991 |
Dal gCais(Ire)
Seadna (USA) |
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