Ancient Irish Funeral Traditions

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 31 October 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever been to an Irish wake? If so, you may have heard of the ancient tradition of keening or the superstition of the 'hungry grass'. In this episode, Dan is joined by the hosts of the After Dark podcast, Dr Anthony Delaney and Dr Maddy Pelling, to explore some of the historic rites and beliefs surrounding death and mourning in Ireland. Anthony explains the role of 'keening women' - once persecuted by the government and the church - who would wail and lament at the graveside (and air any mistakes the deceased may have made) as well as the procession down the 'corpse road' and the customs of covering mirrors and opening the window at the point of death.

Warning: this episode has an instance of explicit language.

If you want more Halloween listening from Dan, Anthony and Maddy, you can check out this episode on The Origins of Halloween here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6MEO4AI9cbO0PtEH5l4zyZ

Produced by Freddy Chick and edited by Matthew Wilson and Dougal Patmore

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi folks, welcome Dan Snow's History Hit. If you have kids or if you have a podcast producer who is obsessed with autumn fall, like I do, it won't have passed you by that today is Halloween.
0:14.2	Last year we did an episode that everyone seemed to love with our good friends over on the After Dark podcast, Dr. Antianelani and Dr. Maddie Pelling,
0:21.5	we talked about the Irish origins of Halloween.
0:24.3	We looked at Sowan, the pagan festival that marks the end of the Celtic harvest season, the beginning of winter,
0:30.2	when they believed that the veil between the world of the living and of the dead was at its thinnest.
0:36.3	We carved turnips, which was the OG vegetable used to make
0:39.6	jack-a-lanterns, and this pumpkin nonsense. They ward off evil spirits, obviously. We tried an Irish
0:45.5	barnbrack cake, a sort of cake with raisins and sultanas in it, which I absolutely loved.
0:51.5	Now, a key part of my Halloween celebrations. And you can find a link to that
0:55.4	episodes in the show notes. And after we went live with that episode, now everyone talks about
0:59.8	Irish Halloween. It's just we move the Overton window there, folks. I'm taking full credit.
1:04.2	And since we're back in spooky season now, I thought we'd get the gang together, the old team
1:07.8	together to give you another lesson in ancient Irish history.
1:11.8	This is the story of how people in Ireland have approached death and grief for millennia,
1:18.3	and the story of how they face persecution for it.
1:21.7	The story of telling on today's episode is of ancient Gaelic burial traditions.
1:28.1	Keening, for example.
1:29.6	The Keening women, as they're known, were ritual mourners in the Gaelic tradition.
1:33.4	They would wail, they'd sing a lament to express grief on behalf of a bereaved family and community.
1:38.6	In the 19th century, this was thought to be so transgressive that both the British government,
1:43.2	and remarkably the Catholic Church,
1:44.9	working hand in glove for a change, sought to eliminate it entirely,
	...

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