School: An Fhiacail

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1. Wakes and Funerals (continued)

   

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   The wakes around here about fifty years ago were entirely different. When a person died that time, the people of the house in which the person was dead used to pay special women called "Kenners" to lament and cry over the corpse. This lamenting was often hear a quarter of a mile from the house, and it usually lasted for about an hour.

   When the corpse is waked now for a night, they coffin it next day and four men of the one name always shoulder the coffin out of the house to the church. If the house is'nt near the chapel they put the coffin in a hearse until they reach about a quarter of a mile from the chapel and then they shoulder it for the remainder of the way. When they reach the chapel the same four that shouldered it out of the house must again shoulder it into the church and graveyard.

   The Banshee used also be heard about a week before certain people died, particularly by people with "o's" and "macs" by their names, but now she is'nt heard as frequently as she was years ago. At other times lights used be seen around the house which indicted the same thing.

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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

   Máire Ní Bhradáin

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Feakle, Co. Clare

   Informant

   John Holohan

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   64

   Address

   Feakle, Co. Clare