The Hidden History of Irish Wakes | After Dark
After Dark Video Podcasts
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38m
Watch this full episode of After Dark with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling where they chat about ancient Irish burial traditions, keening, Irish wakes, and funerary rites. Joined by special guest historian Dan Snow, they explore the lost Gaelic ritual of "keening" — a powerful, thousand-year-old performance of grief by women that was so transgressive, both the British government and the Catholic Church fought to erase it entirely.
The conversation also digs into the hidden history of the traditional Irish wake, from sitting with the body for days and drinking poitín to superstitions like covering mirrors and opening windows to free the soul. They discuss the folklore of "hungry grass," the significance of corpse roads, and how these ancient pagan practices clashed with modern ideas of control and civility.
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