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Death
The following description of the death of one of the Kilmartin sons is taken from
the novel The Famine by Liam O'Flaherty (1979) which was set during the great famine of the mid 1800s in
the west of Ireland.
Liam O'Flaherty was born on the Aran Islands in 1896.
The sick man, who had been wasting to a skeleton for the past month, had at last reached his end. Even so, he found it hard to died. After the last rites of the church had been administered and he had resigned himself to his fate, he struggled on through the night, fighting grimily. Dawn was breaking before he died. The copper coins were placed on his eyelids and the death wail began in the house. Kate Heron took charge of the mourning.
She led Maggie for the death-bed to the hearth and put her sitting on a stool in the chimney corner.
Then she herself squatted on the floor before the fire, surrounded by a group of neighbour women,
who drew their skirts over their heads. Kate sprinkled ashes on the women's heads and began
to recite the death chant. She bent forward until she was almost prone, with her hands
stretched towards the fie. Her body, forward from the hips, then broke into movement, miming
the tortures of the human soul, as it struggles to break free form its prison in the human body.
Her back twisted slowly, like an animal with a broken hip dragging itself along the ground. Her
hands and arms also twisted, as if she were kneading breads in the air. She raised her shoulders
as her hand reached outward, urging forth the spirit, miming the act of birth.
Her chant was mostly an inarticulate cadence, while the other women, rocking themselves, now
and again uttered prayers to God, begging him to accept the departed soul. At times the old woman's
voice imitated the death rattle. At times it rose to wild shriek of triumph,
during which she plunged forward, seized ashes in her hands and scattered them
towards the open door, as was customary, to exorcise evil spirits that barred the soul's
flight to Paradise. At last she stood up straight from her knees paused for a moment
as if listening and then thrust her arms above her head, crying with great fervour:
"God of glory! Have mercy now and open your gates."
"Amen!" said the other women.
Thereupon they all lay prone on the ground for some time with their heads covered, until Kate
Heron rose and said in a normal tone:
"We"ll go now and lay out the corpse"
The corpse was laid out in the corner of the kitchen where the pigs' bed had been.
For that an extra table had to be borrowed from a neighbour, together with forms of seating the
visitors. By the time all had been prepared, Martin returned from the village with the
pipes and tobacco. The old man sat near the head of the corpse and filled the pipes,
which he passed around among the mourners. The wake had begun. As people entered the kitchen,
they blessed the house in a whisper, knelt before the corpse in prayer and then sat down for a
while. The men smoked a little . They talked in low voices about ordinary things.
It was contrary to the etiquette to refer to the cause of their presence. When leaving,
however, they waited in the yard until they met one of the family, when they tendered regret
in a formal manner. It was all very ceremonious. In the afternoon, Tom Gill, the cooper,
began to make the coffin on the rock where the oats had been threshed. Then the keg of
whiskey was broached and the wake became livelier. By nightfall the house as crowed and
there was even an atmosphere of gaiety. That was proper and according to custom.
Roberts' semi-monthly magazine, Volume 1
1841 had these comments and more on the traditional Irish wake.
The most anxious thoughts of the
Irish peasant through life revert to
his death; and he will endure the extreme
of poverty in order that he may scrape together
the means of obtaining "a fine wake" and a "decent funeral." He will, indeed, hoard for this purpose,
though he will economise for no other; and it is by no means rare to find among a family clothed with rags,
and living in entire wretchedness, a few untouched garments laid aside for the day of burial. It is not
for himself only that he cares; his continual and engrossing desire is, that his friends may enjoy "full
and plenty" at his wake; and however miserable his circumstances, "the neighbors" are sure to have
a merry meeting and an abundant treat after he is dead. His first care is, as his end approaches,
to obtain the consolations of his religion; his next, to arrange the order of the coming feast. To
"die without the priest" is regarded as an awful calamity. We have more than once heard a dying man
exclaim in piteous accents, mingled with moans - "Oh, for the Lord's sake, keep the life in me till
the priest comes!" In every serious case of illness the priest is called in without delay, and it is a
duty which he never omits; the most urgent business, the most seductive pleasure, the severest weather,
the most painful illness, will fail in tempting him to neglect the most solemn and imperative of all
his obligations-the preparing a member of his flock to meet his Creator. When the Roman Catholic
sacrament of extreme unction has been administered, death has lost its terrors- the sufferer usually
dies with calmness, and even cheerfulness. He has still, however, some ef the anxieties of earth;
and, unhappily, they are less given to the future destinies of his family, than to the ceremonies
and preparations for his approaching wake.
The formalities commence almost immediately after life has ceased;. The corpse is at once laid
out, and the wake begins: the priest having been first summoned to say mass for the repose of
the departed soul, whicn he generally does in the apartment in which the body reposes! It is
regarded by the friends of the deceased as a sacred duty to watch by the corpse until laid in the
grave; and only less sacred is the duty of attending it thither.
The ceremonies differ somewhat in various districts, but only in a few minor and unimportant particulars.
The body, decently laid out on a table or bed, is covered with white linen, and, not
unfrequently, adorned with black ribbons, if an adult; white if the party be unmarried; and flower, if
a child. Close by it, or upon it, are plates of tobacco and snuff; aiound it are lighted
candles.
Usually a quantity of salt is laid upon it also. The women of the household arrange themselves at either
side, and the keen (caoinej) at once commences. They rise with one accord,
and moving their bodies with a slow motion to and fro, their arms apart, they continue to
keep up a heart-rending cry. This cry is interrupted for a while to give the ban
cuointhc (the leading keener,) an opportunity of commencing. At the close of every stanza
of the dirge, the cry is repeated, to fill up as it were, the pause, and then dropped;
the woman then again proceeds with the dirge, and so on to the close. The only interruption
which this manner of conducting a wake suffers, is from the entrance of some relative of the
deceased, who, living remote, or from some other cause, may not have been in at the commencement.
In this case, the ban caointhe ceases, all the women rise and begin the cry, which is continued
until the new-cemsr has cried enough. During the pauses of the women's wailing, the men,
seated in groups by the fire, or in the corners of the room, are indulging in jokes,
exchanging repartees, and bantering each other, some about their sweethearts, and some
about their wives, or talking over the affairs of the day - prices and politics, priests and parsons,
the all-engrossing subjects of Irish conversation.
A very accurate idea of an Irish wake may be gathered from a verse of a rude song,
It is needless to observe that the merriment is in ill keeping with the solemnity of the death chamber,
and that very disgraceful scenes are or rather were, of frequent occurrence; the whiskey
being always abundant, and the men and women nothing loath to partake of it to intoxication.
The keener is usually paid for her services-the charge varying from a crown to a pound, according to
the circumstances of the employer.
The funerals are invariably attended by a numerous concourse; some from affection to the deceased:
others, as a tribute of respect to a neighbor; and a large proportion, because time is of
small value, and a day unemployed is not looked upon in the light of money lost. No invitations
are ever issued. Among the upper classes, females seldom accompany the mourners to the grave;
but among the peasantry the women always assemble largely.
The procession, unless the churchyard is very near, (which is seldom the case) consists mostly
of equestrians-the women being mounted behind the men on pillions; but there are also a number of cars,
of every variety. The wail rises and dies away, at intervals, like the fitful breeze.-
On coming to a crossroad it is customary, in some places, for the followers to stop
and offer up a prayer for the departed soul; and in passing through a town or village,
they always make a circuit round the site of an ancient cross. In former times the scene
at a wake was re-enacted with infinitely less decorum in the church-yard; and country funerals
were often disgraced by riot and confusion. Itinerant venders of whiskey always mingled among the
crowd, and found ready markets for their inflammatory merchandise. Party fights were consequently
very common; persons were frequently set to guard the ground where it was expected an
obnoxious individual was about to be interred; and it often happened that, after such
conflicts, the vanquished party have returned to the grave, disinterred the body, and left
it exposed on the highway. The horror against suicide is so great in Ireland, that it is by
no means rare to find the body of a wretched man, who has been guilty of the crime, remaining
for weeks without interment-parties having been set to watch every neighboring church yard
to prevent its being deposited in that which they consider belongs peculiarly to them.
It is well known that if two funerals meet at the same churchyard, a contest immediately
takes place to know which will enter first; and happily if, descrying each other at a distance,
it is only a contest of speed; for it is often a eontest of strength, terminating in
bloodshed and sometimes in death.
Notes:
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Salt has been considered by all nations as an emblem of friendship; and it was anciently offered to
guests at an entertainment, as a pledge of welcome.
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The Irish words " Caoin" and " Cointhe" cannot easily be pronounced according to any mode of writing
them in English. The best idea that can be given of the pronunciation, is to say that the word
has a sound between that ol the English words " Keen" and Queen."
The wake lasted two to four days.
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