My father died 5 years ago after spending 3 weeks in the ICU and the last thing I wanted to do was shake 200 people’s hands.
Just have a funeral, burial/cremation and have a sesh afterwards if you want to or not.
In your lifetime, how many wakes or funerals have you been to?
When a person has lived a good long life, I find wakes a fantastic way to celebrate their achievements and life lived.
Eddie Lenihan does a good podcast on irish folklore. He’s got one episode on funerals, it’s very interesting.
I feel like there’s a fine line between wanting to show respect for the person who has died and leaving the family alone to grieve.
When my Dad passed, our house was full of random people from the moment he died until he was buried. It was my first time dealing with the death of an immediate family member and it was absolutely exhausting.
An Irish wake is probably the most beautiful, heartbreaking and funny event that any person could ever attend. The stories that are told remain with you forever. At my father in laws wake we learned from his brothers that when they lived in London they all stayed at the same boarding house, he chatted up a scottish nurse, she took him back to her digs but he had to use a ladder to get in her window, he fell off the ladder and broke his leg, he met an Irish nurse in hospital and married her, to this day she still thinks he fell off a ladder at work not because he was trying to bang some nurse from paisley 😂
I honestly think its probably one of the best things about being Irish. The whole wake and funeral. Its so moving and you really get to say goodbye.
Has anyone revived the art of keening? Would like to have one at my own funeral whenever that may be.
Wakes are great. Our neighbours across the water just leave you in a fridge for a few weeks before burying you – I’ve always thought wakes were a much more humanising and thoughtful way of dealing with death.
Holy fuck that’s Inis Oirr. Been down them roads many a time
12 comments
I vote for a ban on wakes.
My father died 5 years ago after spending 3 weeks in the ICU and the last thing I wanted to do was shake 200 people’s hands.
Just have a funeral, burial/cremation and have a sesh afterwards if you want to or not.
In your lifetime, how many wakes or funerals have you been to?
When a person has lived a good long life, I find wakes a fantastic way to celebrate their achievements and life lived.
Eddie Lenihan does a good podcast on irish folklore. He’s got one episode on funerals, it’s very interesting.
I feel like there’s a fine line between wanting to show respect for the person who has died and leaving the family alone to grieve.
When my Dad passed, our house was full of random people from the moment he died until he was buried. It was my first time dealing with the death of an immediate family member and it was absolutely exhausting.
An Irish wake is probably the most beautiful, heartbreaking and funny event that any person could ever attend. The stories that are told remain with you forever. At my father in laws wake we learned from his brothers that when they lived in London they all stayed at the same boarding house, he chatted up a scottish nurse, she took him back to her digs but he had to use a ladder to get in her window, he fell off the ladder and broke his leg, he met an Irish nurse in hospital and married her, to this day she still thinks he fell off a ladder at work not because he was trying to bang some nurse from paisley 😂
I honestly think its probably one of the best things about being Irish. The whole wake and funeral. Its so moving and you really get to say goodbye.
The funeral customs of ireland
https://jstor.org/stable/pdf/983061.pdf
Just throw me in the trash.
Has anyone revived the art of keening? Would like to have one at my own funeral whenever that may be.
Wakes are great. Our neighbours across the water just leave you in a fridge for a few weeks before burying you – I’ve always thought wakes were a much more humanising and thoughtful way of dealing with death.
Holy fuck that’s Inis Oirr. Been down them roads many a time