The Outrageous Games People Played at Irish Wakes — And Who Tried to Stop Them

Sharing is caring!

The body is laid out in the parlour. The candles are burning. The priest has said his prayers. And then someone deals the cards.

That is not a scene from a dark comedy. For centuries, it was simply what happened at an Irish wake. Games — real ones, raucous ones, sometimes bawdy ones — were played beside the coffin, and nobody considered this disrespectful. It was, in its own strange way, the point.

When a Funeral Was Also a Party

In rural Ireland, a wake was never a private affair. When someone died, word travelled fast, and the community arrived.

Neighbours brought food. Whiskey was poured. Clay pipes were lit. The family of the deceased did not sit alone in their grief — they were surrounded by people who stayed through the night, keeping vigil with them and with the body of the person they had lost.

The word “wake” itself tells you something. It comes from the tradition of keeping watch — staying awake through the night to ensure the soul passed safely and the body was not disturbed. But Irish wakes were never silent. Inside the wake house, it was never quiet — and that was entirely deliberate.

At some point in the evening, the games would begin.

The Games Themselves

Cards were the most common. A game of forty-five or twenty-five would go on for hours around the kitchen table, the deceased resting peacefully in the next room or sometimes in the very same space.

But cards were the tame option. Other wake games were far stranger.

“Bout” involved one person lying down and pretending to be dead while the others attempted increasingly elaborate — and increasingly ridiculous — methods of revival. The game required the “corpse” to stay still no matter what, which, as the night wore on and the attempts grew more absurd, was no small challenge.

“The Ship” was an elaborate piece of group roleplay, with participants acting out a crew navigating a disaster at sea. Each player had a role, and anyone who broke character or forgot their lines paid a forfeit.

“Selling the Pig” involved rapid-fire wordplay and quick thinking. The aim was to catch other players out with clever traps of language — the sort of game that rewards people who are sharp even after a long night.

Then there were the rougher games. Historians and folklorists who documented these traditions in the 19th and early 20th centuries recorded games that were physically energetic, broadly comic, and sometimes frankly ribald. These were games that celebrated the body — movement, laughter, even crudeness — as a deliberate counterpoint to death. Life, they said without words, does not stop here.

The Purpose Behind the Play

To a modern eye, playing games beside a coffin looks like irreverence. It was not.

The games served several purposes at once. They kept people awake through the night — no small thing when a vigil could run until dawn. They gave the bereaved something to do with their hands and their minds. They brought noise and energy into a house that might otherwise have collapsed under the weight of grief.

The storytelling that accompanied the games was equally important. Older men and women would tell stories about the person who had died — real ones, funny ones, stories that made the room both laugh and cry. The laughter was not disrespect. It was a form of love. It was a way of saying: this person existed, they had a life, they were known.

Scholars who have studied Irish wake culture believe the games may have pre-Christian roots. The idea of marking death with celebration — of insisting on life’s continuation — is ancient, and not unique to Ireland. But the Irish developed their own particular, exuberant version of it.

☘️ Enjoying this? 64,000+ Ireland lovers get stories like this every week. Subscribe free →

When the Church Got Involved

The Catholic Church had a complicated relationship with wake games from early on.

As early as the 17th century, diocesan synods in Ireland were issuing rulings against “unseemly behaviour” at wakes. The games were seen as distracting from prayer and appropriate grief. Some of the more energetic traditions were considered outright scandalous.

But the tradition was stubborn. It had deep roots and wide support. Priests who pushed too hard against it found themselves in conflict not just with their parishioners, but with families who were simply trying to get through one of the worst nights of their lives in the way their people had always done.

By the 19th century, the Church had largely shifted its approach. The games were officially discouraged, and in more formal communities they were quietly dropped. But in many rural areas — particularly along the west coast — they carried on well into the 20th century, quietly, and with a certain cheerful defiance.

The Last of the Wake Games

The tradition began to fade as Ireland changed.

The rise of funeral parlours moved the dead out of the family home. Television arrived in the 1960s, and with it a shift in how people spent their evenings. Communities became less tightly bound. The practise of neighbours staying through the night, while still common, became less elaborate.

The games, which required a full house and a certain spirit of collective play, became harder to sustain. By the 1970s, they had largely disappeared from most of the country.

In a few corners of Connacht and Munster, fragments survived longest. Older people who grew up in the 1940s and 50s still remember them — or remember their grandparents describing them. The modern Irish wake has kept its warmth and its communal spirit, but the games are mostly gone now.

Some folklorists have tried to document what remains. The Irish Folklore Commission recorded accounts of wake games from the 1930s onwards, capturing traditions that might otherwise have been lost entirely. Those records are among the most unusual documents in Irish cultural history.

What They Were Really Saying

The games were never just entertainment. They were a statement.

In a country where death came early and often — where famine, disease, and emigration had made loss a constant presence — the Irish developed a particular philosophy about grief. You honoured the dead by staying with them. You supported the bereaved by surrounding them. And you reminded everyone present that life, ridiculous and stubborn and worth celebrating, continues.

The best room in every Irish home — kept pristine, rarely used — was where the wake was often held. It was the most important room in the house for exactly one occasion. And on that occasion, it was filled with cards and laughter and games that the priest did not entirely approve of.

If you have ever been to an Irish funeral that somehow turned into something warm and funny and full of stories, you have seen the echo of these traditions. Nobody deals cards beside the coffin any more. But the instinct — to fill the room with life, to refuse to let grief have the last word — is still very much there.

Secure Your Dream Irish Experience Before It’s Gone!

Planning a trip to Ireland? Don’t let sold-out tours or packed attractions spoil your journey. Iconic experiences like visiting the Cliffs of Moher, exploring the Rock of Cashel, or enjoying a guided walk through Ireland’s ancient past often sell out quickly—especially during peak travel seasons.

Booking in advance guarantees your place and ensures you can fully immerse yourself in the rich culture and breathtaking scenery without stress or disappointment. You’ll also free up time to explore Ireland’s hidden gems and savour those authentic moments that make your trip truly special.

Make the most of your journey—start planning today and secure those must-do experiences before they’re gone!

Sharing is caring!