Have you ever been to an Irish wake? If so, you may have heard of the ancient tradition of keening or the superstition of the 'hungry grass'. In this episode, Dan is joined by the hosts of the After Dark podcast, Dr Anthony Delaney and Dr Maddy Pelling, to explore some of the historic rites and beliefs surrounding death and mourning in Ireland. Anthony explains the role of 'keening women' - once persecuted by the government and the church - who would wail and lament at the graveside (and air any mistakes the deceased may have made) as well as the procession down the 'corpse road' and the customs of covering mirrors and opening the window at the point of death. Warning: this episode has an instance of explicit language. 0:00 Introduction 0:54 What is Keening? 3:33 Why the Church & State Banned Keening 4:27 The "Stiff Upper Lip" vs. Pagan Ritual 8:18 The Keening of Eileen O'Connell 15:17 The Traditional Irish Wake 16:24 Rituals: Opening the Window, Covering Mirrors 20:25 The Tradition of Drinking Poitín 25:47 Corpse Roads and Hungry Grass 29:36 Carrying Your Own Dead 33:49 The Story of the Hammering Man Subscribe to our sister podcast After Dark here: https://www.youtube.com/@AfterDarkHistoryHit If you want more Halloween listening from Dan, Anthony and Maddy, you can check out this episode on The Origins of Halloween here: https://youtu.be/FHKVxel-5V8 You can find more Dan Snow's History Hit on the audio podcast here: https://podfollow.com/dan-snows-history-hit/view Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe. All music from Epidemic Sounds. #DanSnowsHistoryHit #HistoryPodcast #Halloween