Sir, – Frank McNally’s An Irishman’s Diary (“Three Steps to Heaven – an ancient Irish funeral custom”, November 17th) about an ancient Irish funeral custom ponders the phrase “trí coiscéim na marbh”, the three steps of the dead.
The phrase, apparently, is also rendered as “trí coiscéimeanna na trócaire”, the three footsteps of mercy. Anne Ridge describes the custom in her 2009 book Death Customs in Rural Ireland – Traditional Funerary Rites in the Irish Midlands”. When one meets a funeral, one should turn around and walk back three steps with it, a sign of compassion for the mourners and the deceased.
The phrase was also recorded in Durrus, West Cork, by national schoolteacher Seosamh Ó Drisceoil in the 1930s. – Yours, etc,
DENIS COTTER,
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