School: Loughteague, Stradbally (roll number 6129)
- Location:
- Loughteeog, Co. Laois
- Teachers: Brigid Keane Brighid Ní Chatháin
Archival Reference
The Schools’ Collection, Volume 0837, Page 162
Image and data © National Folklore Collection, UCD.
See copyright details.
DownloadOpen data
Available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
- XML School: Loughteague, Stradbally
- XML Page 162
- XML “Wake Room”
Note: We will soon deprecate our XML Application Programming Interface and a new, comprehensive JSON API will be made available. Keep an eye on our website for further details.
On this page
- The woman of usually sits close to the bed If an old person is being waked and his death was due to old age the women chat sociably among themselves and to the relatives: after entering into all the details of the last illness of the deceased and which the priest and doctor said and did, the talk goes to the members of the family and every day topics - the pigs, turkeys, eggs, fairs and markets as if this were an ordinary social call. They laugh and joke.However, if the death has been sudden or that there is a great sorrow in the house. The voices are hushed and no one speaks above a whisper. During the day the girls and women go to the wake. If any men come they call in to the wake-room, kneel down, say a prayer and go out again.There is usually some refreshment offered to the visitors, this being given in the parlour Tea or wine or even whiskey is offered but not to a very great extent. In many houses no alchoholic drink is offered as it's use is now forbidden by the Church.After nightfall the men gather in to the wake and stay till 11 or 12. Only the nearest relatives and a couple of near neighbours stay up all night. Whiskey and [?] are [?] given out those times but tea and meal supper is given to those staying on.(continues on next page)
