School: Kilbeggan (B.)

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1. Wakes

   

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   With what agony and sorrow we watch the loved ones struggling against approaching death. We pray with more fervent devotion asking The Supreme Lord of all to "Have Mercy on them." The struggle is over, the dear one is no more. The eyes are closed down, the corpse stretched out reverently covered with a sheet, a prayer offered, the room emptied, the door closed and the body left to stiffen. All the clocks are stopped in the house. Three hours afterwards the "laying out" is done. There is a certain superstition regarding the "lay out." The right hand side of the corpse should be neat the door. If the body is "stiff" after three hours the relatives are satisfied. If "limber" this is an omen of another death soon in the same family. Nowadays the "Wake" is a time of grieving the corpse only kept one night in the house. It is removed to the Church next evening and left one night on the "beer" before the altar. In the old days a wake was much livelier "than a present day Wedding". Drinking, Singing, smoking, and

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Topics

   1. activities
      1. social activities (~7)
         1. rites of passage (~573)
            1. death (~1,076)

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Teresa Hurley

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath

   Informant

   Mrs Caffrey

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Kilbeggan, Co. Westmeath