The Irish Funeral Wake is one of the most famous aspects of our culture.

In traditions that stretch back thousands of years, after someone dies, we gather around their body to celebrate their life.

It's a ritual that can startle those unfamiliar with it.

But where do these customs come from?

Why do we do it?

Are its roots even Christian, or do they stretch back further into our more distant past?

It's all explained in this episode.

Hello and welcome to the Irish History podcast. My name is Finn DeWire. Today's episode was

recorded in the Irish Wake Museum here in Waterford and my guests, Donoko O'Kiallekon and

Kleene Purcell are not only curators at the museum but experts on Irish wakes

and in this podcast they will guide you through thousands of years of Irish rituals surrounding death

in a journey that takes us from the very distant past right up to the present.

Now if you enjoy the episode I strongly recommend visiting the Irish Wake Museum here in

Waterford. Despite passing it, every week, I only checked it out for the first time last month,

but I can say without a shadow of a doubt, it was one of the best tours I've had in a long while.

Now, you can find links to the museum website below. I would say it is worth booking in advance as spaces on each

tour are limited sound on the episode is by kate dunley maybe a good place to start our conversation

is that we're in pretty evocative titled god's people house Do you want to just explain briefly, like obviously

most of our conversation is going to focus on a wake, but I suppose the history of this building,

because this stretches back centuries and probably predates a lot of what we're going to talk about.

Yeah, so I suppose for us, really, one of the stars of the show here is actually the building itself.

So the Wake Museum is kind of built around this incredible place, which is, as you say, called God's People's House. So this would have

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