I'm afraid this message was getting lost in the general discussion in the "wrenning thread" where I originally placed it. So I think it deserves its own thread. Mumming is not especially an Irish custom, but this study looks at the custom as practised in Ireland.

The Folklore Dept. of University College Dublin, in conjunction with the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum and the University of Ulster has a three-year research project called 'Room to Rhyme'. The Aughnakillymaude Community Mummers of County Fermanagh are also associated with the project. While wrenning is but a small aspect of the research, I thought that this thread has more of an Irish focus than the several threads in which mumming is discussed. I think the researchers want to discuss Christmas mumming and related customs in relation only to Ireland. Larry, you might want to get in touch and see if they have an interest in the customs being retained by Irish people abroad.

I will quote now from the preface to the questionnaire, which is available in both English and Irish from 'Room to Rhyme', Dept. of Irish Folklore at University College, Belfield, Dublin 4. tel: (giving international code) +353 1 7167178, fax: +353 1 7161144. e-mail: criostoir.maccarthaigh.ucd.ie :

" The Mummers or Christmas Rhymers "Mumming has been a feature of life in various parts of Ireland for centuries and the Christmas Mummers ('Christmas rhymers' of 'Hogmanay men' as they were also known) were once a familiar sight in many places. Christmas Mummers, Wren Boys and, to a lesser extent, Biddy Boys were particuarly long-lived phenomena in communities distributed along the border from Dundalk to Sligo and from Sligo to Derry, across Ulster, north Leinster and north Connacht. The tradition is well remebered in many areas and persists until the present day in certain loclities. This questionnaire seeks to document past and present-day expressions of that tradition.

"...We wish to enlist your help in gathering reliable local information about different aspects of mumming [by answering specific questions both about the mummers groups and about the nature of the performance]... ...Photographs, posters or any documentation and objects relating to mumming will be gratefully received, and copied and returned if so required. ..."