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Conway, Danny
(2024).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00101454
Abstract
This study considers the unexamined tradition of men voluntarily digging the grave when a neighbour dies, focusing on four separate rural communities in the West of Ireland. It investigates why this practice, associated with a former agrarian society where people had high levels of dependence on one another, is still commonplace in communities where they no longer need to practically rely on their neighbours. Now most earn their living in the wider post-industrial economy, but still live in close-knit rural communities. To understand how and why this practice persists, the author observed one grave being dug by volunteers, took part in helping to dig two others, and interviewed 26 volunteer gravediggers, analysing their practical, social and personal motivations for doing so, within the context of modern-day Ireland. This study demonstrates how social and economic development in the rural West of Ireland has taken place in a manner that enabled this tradition to survive while participants simultaneously earn their living in the burgeoning Irish economy. The author argues that while it is unclear if it will survive as a distinct tradition, the continuance of this custom demonstrates how deep-seated cultural practices can flourish, even in the face of rapid social and economic change. Furthermore, this work also makes the case that voluntary gravedigging should now be recognised as a significant Irish death practice, like the Irish wake.