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Bridget Buckley - Death Customs from Killanne, Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford

I called back to the home of Bridget Buckley in Killanne on the 20th of September 2017 to record a particular death related custom but came away with a lot more. The recording begins with general death customs such as opening windows, covering mirrors, wearing a black diamond etc but moves along from one thing to another. As normal, I’ve nothing prepared, no notes or questions and this loose and ‘non-scientific’ way of recording is something I’ve done for the past 20 years. Shortly into the piece, I get to the bit I came to record: ‘The Wearing of the Clothes of the Dead’. This is a particular custom I’ve encountered in North Wexford which involves the clothes/suit of the recently deceased being given to a close family member or friend to wear at the persons wake. Sometimes they’d be asked to go outside and walk around the house wearing them, and it was common for them to be worn for three consecutive Sundays following the funeral. While it’s not practiced anymore Bridget still remembers the custom; the ‘cant’ as she calls it. You might see someone wearing a set of clothes not belonging to then and think: “Oh, someone must have died belonging to them.” In 1954 folklorist James Delaney visited this part of North Wexford and recorded this custom while he also said it was found in parts of Kerry and West Cork. One particular thing we referenced in the chat was the class divide that existed within rural Wexford when someone would die. There’s a little rhyme that I often heard growing up which highlighted this and Bridget touches on it here: "High Money, High Mass,Low Money, Low Mass,No Money, No Mass” In other words, the more money you had, the bigger send off you got and the more clergy would celebrate the funeral. So in most case when a person of poorer social standing would die, such as a farm labourer or those of the road, a priest most likely wouldn’t attend their funeral and prayers would said by a lay person. This began to change in the 1960’s and I’ve accounts of this from all over Wexford. My own parents often told me that “If you were lucky the priest might bless a handful of clay which would be thrown on the coffin”. Regardless of that, one thing which is very obvious here is the respect that the ordinary people had for the dead. She refers to her husband Seán, who’d never work the land when someone would be dead nearby or drive his tractor by the person's house or the church when there would be a funeral. This is something I‘m glad to say is still done in Wexford by many and in particular I’ve always admired the town of Gorey, where many shops still close their doors and traffic stops as the funeral passed down the main street. There’s so much material here I could elaborate on but I don’t have time so if you get a chance have a listen. Michael Fortune, April 2018