30 DECEMBER 2006, Page 15

Kerry Christmas

From Mary O’Keeffe

Sir: The ‘wren boys’ of Fergal Keane’s childhood Christmasses in Kerry (‘Ireland’s laureate of Christmas’, 16/23 December) still visit the pubs in Connemara, where we spend Christmas, the wren hopping around in its cage as the plate is passed about.

The wild flower guide from the local hotel quotes Patrick Kavanagh and his precocious joy in the Irish flora of his little Monaghan hills — he wrote that as a boy he was in love with them before he knew their names.

Does the Derby Tup of my childhood in south Yorkshire still make an appearance in the streets at Christmas-time, I wonder?

Mary O’Keeffe London W13