Wren Boys outing puts tradition on parade

IT just keeps getting better. Dublin 4’s Wren Boys’ Festival yesterday lived up to its high expectations.

Ryan O’Donoghue Aherne, aged three, from Waterford was getting his first taste, being paraded by proud grandad and chief whip for the day Tom Aherne, from Clane, Co Kildare.

Lord Mayor Michael Conaghan, paying his official first visit to the event, said traditions enrich and animate our lives. “And long may they live,” he declared to an appreciative cheer. “I am delighted I was invited. It’s all about having a bit of fun.”

Tom Aherne’s been at the centre of the Sandymount Wran (as they say it) since its revival in 1985, when kindred spirits like Bob Ryan and Con Howard launched the event, appropriately, in a pub.

In Gus Ryan’s Sandymount House, Dublin musicians Cathal and Áine Holland, Micheál Lacey and Gorey man Mick O’Brien got us off to a perfect start.

After poetry readings and recitations it was time to take the show from the snug pub to the Guinness rig across the street.

They picked up on the set dancing outside, spurred by the music and dancers onstage, no doubt also encouraged by the day’s chilly air.

Sandymount hosted groups from Uruguay and China for the first time. Different they were, but they served to demonstrate the uniquely Irish quality that is the Day of the Wren.