The Ancient Art of Keening: Ireland’s Mourning Tradition
“Bríg came and keened for her son. At first she shrieked, in the end she wept. Then for the first time weeping and lamentation were heard in Ireland.”
— Leabhar Gabhála, or “Book of Invasions”
The above passage, drawn from the ancient Irish text Lebor Gabála Érenn, or The Book of Invasions, captures what is often described as the first keening cry in Ireland. In this poignant moment, Brigid, overwhelmed by grief for her fallen son, lets out a wail that would come to define the tradition of keening.
What is Keening?
The term “keening” derives from the Gaelic word caoineadh, meaning “to cry.” Keening is a form of death wailing, primarily performed by women, found in indigenous cultures across Europe, the Americas, Australia, Africa, and Asia. It can manifest as a wordless cry—an emotional outpouring of sound—or as a structured recounting of the deceased’s deeds and virtues.
In some traditions, keening serves as a plea to the spirit world or deities to guide the departed soul. It also honors the deceased, embedding their memory in the minds of the living through powerful, mournful chants.
Keening Across Cultures
In ancient Greece, mourners known as Goetes would howl and chant beside the deceased to ensure their soul’s safe passage to the heavens. The term Goetes, often translated as “sorcerer” or “magician,” originally meant “to moan” or “howl,” reflecting the vocal nature of their role.
Similar practices appear in Asian funeral traditions, where shamanistic chants are believed to carry the soul through the dangers of the underworld. These songs often highlight the deceased’s heroic deeds or acts of kindness, enhancing their spiritual journey by appeasing ancestors and spirits.
Keening in Ireland
In Ireland, keening was once a cornerstone of the grieving process. As described in historical accounts:
“Long ago when a person died, the old women of the neighborhood would come into the wake house crying over the corpse and reciting the praises of the dead man or woman. This would generally be repeated from time to time until the corpse was taken to be buried…”
(Irish Folklore Archives, Ref. 1)
Keening began to fade in Ireland before the 1880s, contrary to some academic claims that it persisted strongly into the mid-20th century. Scholar Angela Bourke notes that the Irish Famine devastated the rural poor, who were key preservers of this tradition, while mass emigration further disrupted its transmission.
The Banshee Connection
Keening shares a deep connection with the Bean Sídhe (Banshee), the Irish fairy woman whose wail foretells death. A 1938 account from Co. Tipperary describes keeners combing their hair while wailing, mirroring the Banshee’s iconic behavior:
“In olden times when a person died, the relatives of the dead person went several miles to get a ‘keener,’ ‘caoinear.’ This was a woman who went to the side of the bed and kept keening or crying until the person was buried. The keeners are not called to my district when wakes take place, but some of them visit the houses of the dead persons still and start keening outside the windows. While the keeners are keening outside they keep combing their hair.”
(Irish Folklore Archives, Ref. 2)
Another tale from Co. Kilkenny links the Banshee’s comb to her keening cry:
“A man from Tulla found a comb in a field and brought it home. The banshee’s ‘keen’ was heard for several nights after. They knew then that the comb belonged to the banshee, and they had to redden a shovel, and pass the comb out on the shovel, through the window, to her. She stopped keening and went away.”
(Irish Folklore Archives, Ref. 3)
Researcher Patricia Lysaght connects the Banshee, sometimes called the Bow, to Badb, the Irish death goddess. The Bow is described as a liminal figure, neither good enough for heaven nor bad enough for hell, wandering the earth to keen for the dead:
“The Bow is said to be the demon of the air… It is said that she is a small woman and that when she was a girl she had a long head of hair which she was always combing… She goes around at night crying and keening and her cry is like the cry of a young child.”
(Irish Folklore Archives, Ref. 4)
The Liminal Power of Keening
Keening often blurs the boundaries between the physical and spiritual worlds. Keening women may have intentionally entered a liminal state, taking on the grief of the bereaved to bridge the living and the dead. Linguistic anthropologist Jim Wilts, in the RTÉ radio program The Sounds of Grief, compares this to the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts (c. 2600 BCE), where Isis keens over Osiris, transforming into a falcon and emitting a haunting cry.
This liminality echoes the eerie quality of fairy music in Irish folklore, which is said to contain tones that manipulate time or open portals to the Otherworld. As one account notes:
“There is very little of this Druids ring to be seen now only a round circle of stones. It was later called the Fairy Ring, as tradition says that the spirits of those dead and gone braved haunted the place, and fairy music was heard there at night.”
(Irish Folklore Archives, Ref. 5)
The Decline of Keening
Keening, once widespread, is now rare in Ireland, though it persists in isolated cases, particularly among the Travelling Community. Efforts to revive it through ancestral healing practices face challenges due to its historical decline. Two main factors contributed to its disappearance:
- Church Opposition: The Catholic Church viewed keening as a pagan practice and sought to suppress it. Synods in Tuam (1660) and Armagh and Dublin (1670) condemned keening, with priests refusing to attend wakes where keeners were present. In the Diocese of Leighlin, keeners faced excommunication for persisting in the practice.
- Social Shifts: As Ireland modernized, keening was increasingly seen as backward. Keeners, often associated with folk cures and fairy lore, were mocked, as seen in this account:
“John F Senior made a laugh of the keeners and said if they did not stop they’d waken his father. There was a laugh and the keeners felt so wronged that they refused the next funeral.”
(Irish Folklore Archives, Ref. 7)
Marie-Louise Muir, in her BBC documentary Songs for the Dead, suggests that the church’s discomfort stemmed from keening women’s emotional authenticity, which rivaled formalized prayers. She describes the keening sound as otherworldly, evoking both awe and unease:
“To my ear, as an orchestral, classically trained musician, they were off-note. That unsettled me. It’s akin to nails being scraped down a blackboard. Every atom of your body cringes against it. You just recoil. You’re recoiling from the horror of loss, but this music is incredible.”
(Ref. 6)
Keening in Literature
The raw emotion of keening is vividly captured in Hannah Kent’s novel The Good People, where Nance Roche, a Bean Feasa, keens at a wake, stirring unease among villagers. The practice’s primal nature contrasted with the formal rosary, highlighting its cultural tension.
As Muir notes, keening’s decline was partly due to embarrassment, as Ireland sought to shed its “regressive” image in favor of modernity. Yet, its haunting power remains undeniable, resonating with those who hear it.
Keening and the Irish Landscape
Ireland’s megalithic monuments, aligned with celestial events, reflect an ancient awareness of death’s universal significance. Keening, like these sacred sites, was an outward expression of grief, contrasting with the somber, inward mourning that emerged as the church reshaped funeral customs from the 1850s.
For the ancient Irish, keening was a release, a song to escort souls to the next world. Though largely silent today, its echoes linger in Ireland’s folklore and landscape, a testament to a tradition that once gave voice to the inexpressible.
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