Just now, up and down the country, strawboys are attending weddings and adding to their gaiety and excitement. I had the pleasure of witnessing them a few nights ago at a marriage festival. About midnight a horn blast was heard outside. The dancers cleared off the floor. Girls hugged one another and giggled excitedly. Ten men entered, all with masked faces, and straw hitched to the shoulders and legs. Six of them carried long staffs, or what a friend called "mogers". Having formed a circle in the centre of the floor, the four "unarmed" walked around, and, selecting four girls, took them by the arms. One of the party produced a fiddle and struck up a set of quadrilles. When every figure was danced the horn was blown again and the ten men marched out.
From the moment of entry none of them spoke a word. "That is their principal rule," a friend told me. "Neither is any girl supposed to refuse them a dance - anyhow, they are only delighted to be asked. No strawboy is supposed to take food or drink in the house, no matter who offers it."
"The staffs," he continued, "are a kind of warning to inquisitive persons who might try to rush them and pull off their masks. Half the fun is in trying to guess their identity. Strawboys are supposed to bring luck to newly-weds, and nobody here to-night was more anxious for their appearance than the bride and bridegroom. The more that come the better they will like it, because, besides the luck, it will show they are popular."
The Irish Times, February 7th, 1931.