Irish Wake Museum

The museum opened in 2022 in the Widows' Apartments of the Holy Ghost Hospital, a fifteenth-century almshouse and one of the oldest continuously used buildings in Waterford, and its subject is the Irish wake - the customs around death and mourning that survived here longer and more elaborately than in most of Western Europe. It covers keening, the formal wailing lament performed by hired women, which the Church spent centuries trying to suppress; the games, drinking, matchmaking and storytelling that went on around the corpse and scandalised clerical observers; the layout of the room and the stopping of clocks and covering of mirrors; and the genuine nineteenth-century fear of premature burial, with the devices designed against it. It is guided, about an hour, and it treats the material seriously rather than as a curiosity. The tour is part of the Waterford Treasures group and combined tickets cover several museums.

The main sights

• The keening tradition - the hired lament, and the Church's long campaign against it.
• The wake games - the drinking, matchmaking and storytelling around the corpse.
• The premature burial fear - the devices made against being buried alive.
• The almshouse - a fifteenth-century building still in use elsewhere on the site.

When to go

Any season; indoors. Guided tour only at set times, about an hour. Combined tickets with the other Waterford Treasures museums are better value.

Things to know

Guided tour only and timed - no independent wandering. The subject is death, handled directly, and it is not for young children. Small; an hour covers it.

Nearby

Reginald's Tower, the Bishop's Palace and the House of Waterford Crystal are all within the Viking Triangle.

Key facts