Irish funerals and wakes are one of the more famous aspects of our culture. Often taking the form of a celebration, it has been said we do death well. However the modern Irish funeral is not the timeless tradition we often imagine. In this episode of the Irish History Podcast I explore the strange history of Irish funerals and the lost world of 19th-century death customs.

Drawing on folklore and first-hand accounts, I explore the history behind the banshee (bean sí) and other less well known death omens. I also trace the strange and unsettling rituals, superstitions and wake traditions that once surrounded death in Ireland - customs that can be difficult to relate to today.

From the banshee to the grave, this is a journey into a lost world of grief, ritual and belief.

Written, researched, and presented by Fin Dwyer

Sound: Kate Dunlea

Voice Actors: Aidan Crowe and Therese Murray

If you want to learn more about wakes, check out this episode recorded in the Irish Wake Museum https://shows.acast.com/irishhistory/episodes/the-irish-wake-a-history

Sources

* Patricia Lysaght, The Banshee: The Irish Death-Messenger https://archive.org/details/bansheeirishdeat0000lysa

* St. John Seymour, True Irish Ghost Stories https://archive.org/details/trueirishghostst00seymiala

Duchas.ie, the National Folklore Archive

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4602737/4599804/4634242

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4427971/4362341/4466724

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4649683/4646384/4650807

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4427866/4351921/4435336

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4649683/4646384/4650807

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4758475/4747226/4779806

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/5008831/4959379/5072669

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4623003/4622767/4630843

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4742070/4732588/4819790

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922035/4920905/4955848

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4922258/4864961/5021036

https://www.duchas.ie/en/cbes/4706331/4703491/4726094

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

"Intercourse between Bolshevism and Sinn Féin" These were the words one British newspaper used to describe the relationship between the Irish Republican movement and the fledgling Soviet Union during the Irish Revolution. It was an unlikely pairing. Ireland became a deeply conservative, Catholic country where communism was viewed with suspicion and fear. Yet during the Irish War of Independence, as British forces fought republicans across the island, whispers of Soviet support and communist sympathy rippled through both Dublin and London.

But how real was this link? Did the IRA truly seek Soviet weapons and backing? And what did Moscow make of Irish republicanism? This episode uncovers the remarkable and forgotten story of how Ireland and Soviet Russia came to view each other as potential allies, and why that relationship would ultimately collapse. This is the third episode in Brothers in Pain ia groundbreaking series by Dr Brian Hanley that explores the international dimensions of the Irish War of Independence.

Written, Researched & Narrated by Dr Brian Hanley. Check out Brian's publications here https://www.tcd.ie/history/staff/brian-hanley.php

Producer: Fin Dwyer

Sound: Kate Dunlea

Note from Brian :

In researching these episodes I have been indebted to the work of the following scholars;

Anna Lively, Sam McGrath, Bruce Nelson, Terry Dunne, David Brundage, Niamh Coffey, Gerard Shannon, Maurice Casey, Kelly Anne Reynolds, Chris McNickle, Joe Doyle, Liz Gillis, FM Carroll, Patrick Mannion, Jimmy Yann, Niall Cullen, Pádraig Óg Ó Ruairc, Keith Jeffrey, Arthur Mitchell, John Borgonovo, Kate O’Malley, Michael Doorley, Robin Adams, Kevin Kenny, Fearghal McGarry, Catherine M. Burns, Síobhra Aiken, Patrick J. Mahony, Darragh Gannon, Matthew Pratt Guterl and James R. Barrett.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

For Dublin's gay community, Irish Independence and the creation of the Irish Free State in 1922 heralded anything but freedom. While the new state promised change, the gay community faced decades of repression, arrest, and severe punishment. Yet despite this, they continued to build lives, relationships, and communities in the shadow of fear.

In this episode, I am joined by historian Averill Earls to discuss her book Love in the Lav, a fascinating history of the community in Dublin in the decades after Irish independence. While repression is central to the story, this conversation also uncovers a more complicated picture of the community's relationship with wider Irish society and the ways people navigated a world shaped by surveillance, stigma, and silence.

Become a supporter of the show patreon.com/irishpodcast

Get your copy of Averill's book Love in the Lav

In Ireland - https://www.hodgesfiggis.ie/book/love-in-the-lav/averill-earls/9781439924167

In the US Bookshop.org - https://bookshop.org/p/books/love-in-the-lav-a-social-biography-of-same-sex-desire-in-ireland-1922-1972-averill-earls/99753665e753ea33?ean=9781439924167&next=t

Averill Earls is Associate Professor of History at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, Executive Producer of Dig: A History Podcast, and co-convener of the Reminiscence and Remembrance Oral History Project for LGBTQ+ Ireland.

Sound: Kate Dunlea

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.