Dan Snow's History Hit

Episode: Ancient Irish Funeral Traditions

Release Date: October 31, 2025
Guests: Dr. Anthony Delaney, Dr. Maddie Pelling

Overview

In this special Halloween episode, Dan Snow explores the rich, dramatic, and sometimes contentious traditions of Irish funerals—from ancient keening rituals performed by women, to wakes filled with both grief and community, to corpse roads and superstitions that persist even today. Joined by historians Dr. Anthony Delaney and Dr. Maddie Pelling, Dan dives deeply into how Irish communities have faced death for millennia, what these customs meant for those living through them, and why they persist or change over time.

Key Discussion Points

1. The Origins and Practice of Keening

Start: 04:22

• Keening Defined:
  • Keening refers to highly formalized laments performed by women at Irish funerals, involving wailing, singing, and even playful or critical remembrances of the deceased.
  • “The word comes from 'queena', or 'quincah', which means to cry. So it's all about crying, lamenting…” – Anthony (04:30)
• Gender and Performance:
  • Only women were traditionally keeners—linked to the mythic banshee and gender roles around expression of grief.
  • “It's more acceptable that the women are absolutely losing their shit beside the grave than it is that men are doing it.” – Anthony (06:29)
• Social and Political Suppression:
  • Both the British state and the Catholic Church sought to eliminate keening in the 19th century, viewing it as pagan and subversive.
  • “It's because it's pagan, it's because it's women, and it's because they're getting paid for it.” – Anthony (06:53)

2. The Cultural Clash: Public Emotion vs. Control

Start: 07:36

• Connections drawn to the “Western” discomfort with overt emotional displays, contrasted with the more physical, sensuous traditions of ancient (and rural) Ireland.
• “Our western version of modernity… is so different.” – Dan (07:36)
• Suppressing public grief as a form of colonial or religious discipline:
  • “They can't have this heathenistic pagan ritual going on when we're trying to civilize this.” – Anthony (07:12)
• Comparison to Roman practices—chaos in designated spaces but control in everyday life.

3. Keening as Art, Tradition, and Protest

Start: 10:29

• Keening is Grief as an Art Form:
  • Keening has distinct forms and improvisations—akin to oral Irish music traditions.
• Memorable Moment:
  • Anthony reads a translated keening from Eileen O’Connell (1793) for her executed husband, capturing the earthy sorrow and longing of the tradition.
  • “She’s really, you know, talking about she’s going to be missing this person from the mundanity of everyday life. But it’s this… appeal, isn’t it? It's something so earthy and so forlorn…” – Anthony (12:53)

4. Paid Mourning and Power

Start: 13:43

• Debate about paying for ritual lament—priests, organists, and “death doulas” versus keeners.
• Paying women for this role brought them close to power and influence during pivotal life transitions, which was threatening to the church/state.
  • “To pay women who are rural, relatively poor…to also put them in such close proximity to really important life stage…there's control in that, there's power in that, there's influence in that.” – Anthony (14:47)

5. The Irish Wake: Ritual, Community, and Change

Start: 16:54 & 22:42

• Traditional Wake Practices:
  • Corpse laid out for two nights; family, friends, and neighbors gather around the body—proximity to death is striking.
  • Customs included stopping clocks, covering mirrors, and opening windows to let the soul out. Hens flying over a corpse had to be killed, lest the soul “transfer.”
    • “As soon as she died, my mum went to the window and opened the window. Because that's one of those things. You let the soul out.” – Anthony (17:54)
  • Ritual drinking: Passing around pipes, drinking poitín (strong clear spirit) over the corpse.
    • Memorable moment: The team toasts with poitín at 25:33, humorously noting its strength—“Pain stripper is what that is.” – Maddie (25:57)
• Modernization & Decline:
  • Wakes are shorter today, fewer traditional rituals kept, especially with urbanization; however, the sense of community persists.
  • Use of RIP.ie—memorial websites echoing the communal aspects of traditional mourning.

6. Corpse Roads & Superstitions

Start: 28:54

• Corpse Roads:
  • Special routes from home to church for funeral processions.
  • It is considered very bad luck in Ireland to put the coffin down on the ground (unless on a cloth); otherwise, the grass becomes “hungry grass” (“fear gorta”)—a cursed spot.
  • “You can't leave the coffin down on grass. But you can leave it down if you put some kind of a sheet underneath it. But if you leave it on the grass…the grass becomes what's called hungry grass.” – Anthony (30:19)
• Community Procession:
  • Family members, not just professionals, traditionally carry and lower the coffin; women now beginning to participate more.
  • The procession must remain together—splitting the funeral party invites another death into the community.

7. Superstition and Storytelling: The Noisy Omen

Start: 38:15

• Anthony tells a ghostly story of a man who hears hammering noises after leaving a wake alone; discusses interpretations—medical, mundane, or supernatural.
  • Anthony suggests, “I think he's hearing the nails in his own coffin.” (40:46)
  • Emphasizes the Irish tradition of storytelling and the enduring power of ritual warnings: Do not leave a wake alone, lest you court misfortune.

Notable Quotes & Segments

• On Keening:
  “It is grief as an art form.” – Anthony (10:29)
• On Suppression:
  “To pay women who are rural, relatively poor…that's not something you want to hand over too easily. Because there’s control in that, there's power in that, there's influence in that.” – Anthony (14:47)
• On Tradition’s Evolution:
  “These traditions are alive. They're evolving throughout Irish history.” – Dan (26:48)
• On Community and Loss:
  “It is not a lonesome or a lonely activity. It is the time when actually you're held up, and you're bound together by this thing…” – Anthony (37:28)
• On Modern Funeral Culture:
  “For me, the thing that is so alien in death culture over here is the time that you guys take to bury the dead. It feels almost cruel…” – Anthony (23:36)
• On Ritual, Story, and Warning:
  “I think he's hearing the nails in his own coffin.” – Anthony (40:46)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Topic | Timestamps | |-------------------------------------------|--------------| | Podcast intro & context | 02:09–04:22 | | Keening: Origins & practice | 04:22–07:53 | | Cultural clash: Emotion & control | 07:53–09:30 | | Keening as art and protest | 10:29–13:43 | | Paid mourning & gender, tradition | 13:43–15:59 | | The wake: rituals & modernization | 16:54–22:02 | | Personal anecdotes on wakes | 22:42–25:00 | | Poitín drinking tradition | 25:01–26:48 | | Wakes in the digital age (RIP.ie) | 27:09–28:51 | | Corpse roads & "hungry grass" superstition| 28:54–32:05 | | Community, loss, and ritual purpose | 35:36–37:28 | | Storytelling: The hammering omen | 38:15–41:26 |

Memorable Moments

• The team samples poitín together, expressing the shock of its strength and connecting it back with funeral traditions. (25:35–25:59)
• Anthony recounting the keening of Eileen O’Connell, merging folklore, politics, and personal grief. (11:08–12:53)
• Discussion of RIP.ie as “modern keening,” and the saga of moderating funeral comments, blending old tradition with new digital spaces. (27:49–28:20)
• Anthony’s folktale about the hammering omen and group speculation about its meaning. (39:00–41:26)

Conclusion

This lively, evocative episode combines personal recollection, scholarship, humor, and just the right amount of spookiness. The conversation brings out how ancient Irish funerary traditions—from keening, wakes, and corpse roads to superstitions and storytelling—continue to shape collective identity and the processing of loss. Modern innovations coexist with old rituals, offering comfort, continuity, and community in the face of death.