Description

The way a society handles its deceased offers a direct window into its deep religious, economic, and institutional priorities. Death, Burial and the Afterlife – Dublin Death Studies delivers an authoritative, data-driven investigation into the physical and social landscapes of mortality in the capital city.

The volume brings together leading historical geographers and social anthropologists to systematically map Dublin’s burial spaces—from overcrowded medieval church vaults to the establishment of massive municipal garden cemeteries like Glasnevin. The authors evaluate how class distinctions, catastrophic epidemics, and religious overhauls directly reshaped mourning rituals and funeral industries. Meticulously annotated to meet university standards, this advanced research volume serves as a crucial asset for urban historians, sociologists, and academic libraries.

Critical frameworks evaluated within this text:

• Public Health & Sanitation Politics: Details the intense legislative battles to close urban churchyards and open sanitary, suburban burial grounds.

• Mourning Material Culture: Analyzes historic gravestone iconography, funeral monument trends, and traditional working-class wake customs.

• Gold-Standard Scholarly Quality: Extensively footnoted with primary archival sources, parish registry datasets, and historical city maps.