The wren boys, however, still kept up their business. The wren boy recitations thus lived on. The Clancy Brothers, also from Carrick, recorded wren boy snatches at New York's Carnegie Hall many years ago. On the Yeats ballad sheet was a reminder of those rhymes: "I have a little box under me arm/ A shilling or two would do it no harm/ A shilling or two would bring relief/ To the poor wren boys on Christmas Eve." That's something this particular poor wren boy endorses!

Source: Irish Independent December 31, 2017 02:26 UTC