Bury the Wren

County Kerry #5

I’m a big fan of this series, and I love the folklore that illuminated this particular instalment.  The books are set in tiny Dingle, Ireland, where veterinarian Dimpna Wilde has returned home from the big city of Dublin to run her father’s veterinary practice. While the veterinary parts of this novel were not as front and center as they are in some of the other books, the St. Stephen’s Day celebration that sets the story makes the book a memorable read.

In Ireland, on St. Stephen’s Day (December 26), the townsfolk celebrate with parades and pub crawls, centered on the “Wren Boys” who are dressed in straw and paint their faces green.  In folklore, the wren betrayed St. Stephen’s hiding place by chattering.  Wrens are carried in effigy by the wren boys (in modern times, stuffed versions, though wrens used to be actually hunted).  That sets the scene when Dimpna finds a taxidermized wren on the steps of her practice, and it gives her a chill as she starts off to town to meet her boyfriend, Cormac, to watch the parade. read more