The Wrenboys still come to our door at Coole on St. Stephen’s Day, as they used in my childhood to come to Roxborough, but it is in our bargain that the wren itself must be symbolic, unmolested, no longer killed in vengeance for that one in the olden times that awakened the sentinels of the enemy Danes by pecking at crumbs on a drum.  And, indeed, these last two or three years the rhymes concerning that old history have been lessened, and their place taken by “The Soldiers Song.”

I think the staging of the play is easy.  The Ogre’s hut may be but a shallow front scene, a curtain that can be drawn away.  The masks are such as might be used by Wrenboys, little paper ones, such as one finds in a Christmas cracker, held on with a bit of elastic, and would help to get the change into the eyes of the audience, which Manannan’s Mullein-dust may not have reached.

Air:  “Shule Aroon”

[Music]

Air:  “Mo Bhuachailin Buidhe”

Brightly [Music]

Air:  “The Bells of Shandon”

My brain grows rus-ty, my mind is dus-ty The time I’m dwelling with the like of ye; While my spirit rang-es through all the changes could turn the world to fel-is-it-y When Ar-is-tot-le

[Music]

The Time I’ve Lost in Wooing

Poco allegretto [Music]

My Molly-O
[Music]

Air:  “O Donall Abu”

[Music]

The Bard of Armagh

Slow. [Music]

Air:  “Dear Harp of My Country”

[Music]

I wish I had the shepherd’s lamb

I wish I had the shep-herd’s lamb, the shep-herd’s lamb, the shepherd’s lamb, I wish I had the shepherd’s lamb, And Ka-tie com-ing af-ter:  Iso o gur-rim gur-rim hoo iso gra-ma-chree gon kel-lig hoo, Iso o gur-rim gur-rim hoo, Sthoo pat-tha beg dho wau-her.

[Music]

Air:  “Let Erin Remember”

[Music]

Air:  “And doth not a meeting like this”

[Music]

Garryowen

Quickly. [Music]

Air:  “O Bay of Dublin”

[Music]

The Cruiskeen Lan

With expression. [Music]

The Beautiful City of Sligo

Quickly. [Music]

The Deserter’s Meditation

Slow. [Music]

Oft in the Stilly Night

Slow. [Music]

Johnny, I hardly knew you

Spirited [Music]

By Memory Inspired

[Music]

Eileen Aroon

[Music]

Air:  “The Shan Van Vocht”

[Music]

Air:  “I saw from the beach”

[Music]

Air:  “Silent, O Moyle”

[Music]

An Spailin Fanach

Moderately [Music]

Air:  “The Last Rose of Summer”

[Music]