The Irish Keen: Grief Rituals and the Otherworld

The return of the traditional Irish lament

• Provides context and history for the traditional Irish lament known as the keen, examining the origins of the ritual and its history from paganism through Christianity

• Explores keening’s shamanic dimensions and mythological connections to the Otherworld, including the world of Faerie while drawing on archaeology and traditional Irish folklore

• Looks at the practicalities of keening, considering the wake as a rite of passage, the role and burden of keeners, the structure and music of the keen, and the contemporary rebirth of the practice

Combining scholarship, storytelling, and embodied wisdom, Mary Mc Laughlin offers an authoritative yet accessible guide to the Irish keen as both an ancient funeral rite and a modern tool to help you navigate bereavement.

A singer and instructor of Irish singing and Gaelic song, Mc Laughlin reveals the keening lament as a ritualized practice that bears aspects of ancient shamanism as well as the pre-Christian spiritual traditions of Ireland. She draws on her own personal experience, interviews, and historic texts to provide a comprehensive and inspiring study of this Irish practice.

As she examines the origins of the keen in pre-Celtic Ireland and its mythological connections to the fairies, she compares its similarities to archetypal lamentation rituals in North America and Asia. Mc Laughlin also explores the keen’s transformation over time—the influence and integration of Christianity, its subsequent suppression, and its rebirth in recent years.

But the true magic of the keen goes beyond its role in expressing grief. In addition to comforting the bereaved and honoring the deceased, the keeners aided the soul of the departed in making its journey to the Otherworld. Contemporary death doulas and hospice workers bear some similarities to keeners as they too help provide tools to process the transition from life to death amid the pain and sorrow at the loss of loved ones.

Mary Mc Laughlin, PhD, was born and raised in Northern Ireland and has lived, taught, and sung her way through Ireland, England, and the United States. Internationally acknowledged for her singing of Irish songs, songwriting, and teaching, she writes and teaches about the keen online. She currently lives in England.