Part entertainment, part ritual, the appearance of strawboys at house weddings in the past is believed to have been intended to bring good fortune to the newly married couple. Disguised neighbours of the couple, wearing conical straw headpieces and/or straw suits, they danced, played music and sang before leaving. They were usually welcomed by those attending the wedding, but occasionally they behaved in a transgressive manner, demanding food and drink. The custom fell into disuse with the increase in church weddings and hotel breakfasts.

Men dressed in straw also took part in seasonal musical performances at Christmas and the New Year (mummers, Christmas rhymers and wrenboys), on St Brigid’s Day (biddyboys), on May Day and Hallowe’en, in harvest dances, and also in games at wakes, into the twentieth century. They are thought to have belonged to once-connected pre-Christian traditions linked to the growth of vegetation and fertility in nature.

Courtesy Irish Traditional Music Archive