Gypsy Funeral Customs

Abstract

ON 4 January 1966 the inhabitants of Brookeborough in County Fermanagh observed with considerable interest the destruction of private property worth some ?4,ooo. This is a sizeable sum of money by any standards, and certainly by those of the hard-headed citizens of a small Irish country town; so it is hardly surprising that the local newspaper in Enniskillen, which circulates widely through this part of Ireland, thought it worth-while to report the events at some length. What actually happened was apparently this. A large and wellfurnished modern trailer-caravan, the home of an old lady of 87, who had just died, and of one of her daughters, was systematically wrecked by her sons and other relatives and then towed away into a field outside the village and burnt. The stove was smashed with a heavy hammer, and so were the china and glass (which included some good pieces of old Waterford), the silver and various ornaments, and the old lady's somewhat flamboyant jewellery. Petrol was then poured over the curtains, bunks and other furnishings and the caravan was set alight. When finally both the caravan and its contents were reduced to a heap of ashes, fused and twisted glass and metal, and broken fragments of charred crockery, the old lady's family departed, taking with them as the sole surviving relic her wedding ring. The proceedings which the people of Brookeborough had watched from a respectful distance, but with perhaps a certain amount of incomprehension, was the ritual destruction of the property and personal effects of a gypsy woman, 'old Mrs Heron of Bundoran', as she was known on account of her fame in that Donegal seaside resort as a palmist and fortune-teller. Mrs Heron's funeral service, and the interment of her remains,