Watch this full episode of After Dark with Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling where they chat about ancient Irish burial traditions, keening, Irish wakes, and funerary rites. Joined by special guest historian Dan Snow, they explore the lost Gaelic ritual of "keening" — a powerful, thousand-year-old performance of grief by women that was so transgressive, both the British government and the Catholic Church fought to erase it entirely. The conversation also digs into the hidden history of the traditional Irish wake, from sitting with the body for days and drinking poitín to superstitions like covering mirrors and opening windows to free the soul. They discuss the folklore of "hungry grass," the significance of corpse roads, and how these ancient pagan practices clashed with modern ideas of control and civility. 0:00 Ireland's Forbidden Funeral Ritual 1:45 What is Keening? (with Dan Snow) 4:21 Why the Church Banned Pagan Keening 9:00 The Art of the Keen: A Gaelic Lament 16:00 Inside the Traditional Irish Wake 17:21 Ancient Wake Superstitions 21:54 Poitín: Drinking with the Dead 26:29 The Folklore of Corpse Roads & Hungry Grass 34:37 A Spooky Irish Death Story Edited by Anna Brant. Produced by Freddy Chick, Mariana Des Forges and McKenna Fernandez. Senior Producer is Charlotte Long. After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast. 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. #HistoryHitPodcast #AfterDark #IrishHistory #Halloween