
How the Irish Teach Us to Die - skadamou
https://lithub.com/how-the-irish-teach-us-to-die/
======
everyone
I'm Irish.. This is such bullshit..

"you probably think a wake is just another Irish piss up, a few beers around
the corpse and an open coffin."

Thats exactly what is is in my experience.

"But amongst the Celts this ancient form of death-sharing lives on."

Celts wtf? We Irish are slightly more inbred that on the continent but the
entire European population has been thoroughly blended for 100's of years. No-
one is a Celt. No-one here would ever mention ancient demographic groups in
reference to modern day events.

Stopped reading after that.

~~~
barry-cotter
> the entire European population has been thoroughly blended for 100’s of
> years.

This is not true. There’s more than a bit of population substructure _within
Ireland_. Norman and English names are over represented among Fine Gael
politicians, Gaelic derived ones among Fianna Fáil. The people in the
Northwest are visibly different than in Leinster, more red heads (Celts), more
people who could pass as Spanish ( the pre-Celtic population).

And the idea that European populations have been thoroughly blended is absurd.
If you walk into an Aldi in Limerick you’ll see the same as as in Leipzig
albeit in a different language. The girl looks German, not Irish. And
Norwegians don’t look like Portuguese.

~~~
kenbaylor
Thoroughly agree. Ireland has many accents, many of them very strong. This is
common in cultures where people stay in a locality for most of their lives.
There is recent mobility (in the last 50 years for work, education etc) but
most families have been stationary in their home towns for multiple
generations. Even the Irish spoken in each area is distinctive.

------
derriz
Most Irish never experience a wake. I know which island is being discussed in
the piece
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achill_Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achill_Island)).
My grandparents lived there and I attended their wakes and those of other
elderly relatives in the area. But even there, wakes are becoming less and
common. And wakes are generally unknown in Ireland outside of relatively
isolated rural areas. I suspect in a couple of decades the custom will be gone
completely.

~~~
dmurray
> Most Irish never experience a wake

I wouldn't go that far. Both of my grandfathers died in the last 3 years, one
in suburban Dublin, one in a large country town. Both had wakes with the body
laid out and dozens or hundreds of people coming to pay their respects. I
agree it's no longer the universal custom it once was, and it's dying out - or
perhaps ebbing, to come back into fashion in another generation.

~~~
derriz
Interesting. I've never been to a wake in a town or city - any funerals I have
experienced have used an undertaker's parlour. I guess I was generalizing from
personal experience but I reckon the author of the piece did a lot more
generalising.

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Omnus
I don't know...most of the things described in the article are commonplace in
Western society, aside from the family members preparing the corpse. He could
have been describing any of a number funerals and deaths I've witnessed in the
United States.

~~~
eksemplar
I feel sorry for the authors loss, but I have to admit that I left the article
without having learned anything from the Irish.

------
protomyth
"In America Death is a whisper." \- well, the part of America that the author
of the article is from. This is not even close to true for other groups of
Americans. America is a vast place with many, many different cultural
influences.

------
arikr
On this topic, highly recommended if you or someone you care about is close to
death:

"Final Journeys" by Maggie Callanan

Also, The Grief Recovery Handbook, by John W James and Russell Friedman

~~~
paulirish
Normally wouldn't do this, but the topic + name match is too much coincidence
to ignore. Allow me to mention my mother's first major book, shipping next
month:

"Grieving - The Sacred Art", by Lisa Irish

~~~
mgkimsal
And... a link to learn more:

[https://www.amazon.com/Grieving-Sacred-Art-Spiritual-
Living/...](https://www.amazon.com/Grieving-Sacred-Art-Spiritual-
Living/dp/1594736340)

------
stuartd
Repost of [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/09/why-
the...](https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/09/why-the-irish-
get-death-right)

------
leesalminen
A bit off topic, but my neighbor is currently dying from an aggressive cancer.
She moved to the US from Ireland ~25 years ago.

She’s convinced there’s something in the US that causes increased cancer rates
vs. Ireland. No family history of cancer and apparently is less common there
than here.

I thought it was interesting and have no data to back it up. Just thought I’d
share a dying Irshwoman’s perspective.

~~~
esprehn
There's data available about that if you're curious:
[https://www.wcrf.org/int/cancer-facts-figures/data-cancer-
fr...](https://www.wcrf.org/int/cancer-facts-figures/data-cancer-frequency-
country)

It doesn't seem Ireland and the US are much different.

~~~
rsynnott
Death rates from cancer also seem to be similar, incidentally. There are
countries where cancer kills a notably smaller number of people than in the
US, but Ireland isn’t one of them: [http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-
professional/cancer-s...](http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/health-
professional/cancer-statistics/worldwide-cancer/mortality#heading-Zero)

