Reimagining keening: an examination of the reinvention of Irish lament as a healing tool in the contemporary world

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dc.contributor.advisorButler, Jenny
dc.contributor.advisorDe Sondy, Amanullah
dc.contributor.authorCaulfield, Marianen
dc.contributor.funderUniversity College Cork
dc.date.accessioned2025-09-29T14:19:14Z
dc.date.available2025-09-29T14:19:14Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.date.submitted2024
dc.description.abstractThis study explores the contemporary revival of the once widely practiced Irish funerary lament tradition known as keening (from the Irish caoineadh, meaning "to cry"). Keening has declined as a funerary practice since the early twentieth century but is now being reimagined in contemporary Ireland as a healing practice in workshops and retreats. Through ethnographic fieldwork (2017–2019), this study examines how groups in Ireland, (and to a lesser extent involves groups in Finland), are repurposing lament as a tool for emotional and spiritual wellbeing. This new way of doing ‘keening’ has found how, through a reinvention of this old tradition, a synthesis of the sonic and the spiritual generates the development of ‘sonic wellbeing tools’ for workshop participants. At its core, this thesis is an analysis of the identity and cultural dynamics at work in the revival of lament practices, and it examines the mechanisms involved when people reconnect with historical ritual and cultural practices. In the analysis of the myriad of connecting themes found in the ethnographic data, this study also elucidates the importance of ritual as a means of meaning making in the contemporary world (Bell 1997; Bowie 2006a, Collins 2014; Geertz, 1957; Grimes 2000; Turner, 1995). The theoretical framework for this thesis draws on a combination of sound studies, which emphasizes the overlooked role of raw vocal expressions like wailing, crying and moaning found in lament practice as well as ritual studies, orality/literacy, post-materiality, collective identity and memory studies. The significance of sound studies is elucidated in this thesis drawing on notable specialists in the field (Becker 2004; Stephen Feld 1984; Gershon 2013; Hackett 2011; Schulze 2012; Sterne 2012 and Voegelin 2014). The study also examines the spiritual ‘cosmology’ that could be identified in the discourse of the research groups and networks, firmly situating this study within the field of contemporary study of religions. This study demonstrates, however, that in such sound making, important spiritual meanings are found, and it offers a distinctive perspective on this cultural phenomenon. This study is unique in its exploration of lament as a healing tool and is also innovative in its focus on contemporary lament practice through the lens of sound studies within the field of study of religions. As such, the study builds on the existing literature and knowledge about lament, while adding valuable insights into the mechanisms of contemporary spirituality and ritual, healing practices, and cultural life.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationCaulfield, M. 2024. Reimagining keening: an examination of the reinvention of Irish lament as a healing tool in the contemporary world. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.
dc.identifier.endpage293
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/17904
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.relation.projectUniversity College Cork (College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, PhD Excellence Scholarship award)
dc.rights© 2024, Marian Caulfield.
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectKeening
dc.subjectIrish lament
dc.subjectCaoineadh
dc.subjectFunerary traditions
dc.subjectContemporary ritual
dc.subjectLament revival
dc.subjectSound studies
dc.subjectRitual Studies
dc.subjectEthnographic fieldwork
dc.subjectVocal expression in ritual
dc.subjectSonic wellbeing tools
dc.subjectContemporary spirituality
dc.subjectOrality and literacy
dc.subjectIdentity and ritual
dc.subjectCollective memory
dc.subjectCommunitas
dc.subjectPost-materiality
dc.subjectCultural revival
dc.subjectSpiritual healing
dc.subjectEmotional wellbeing
dc.titleReimagining keening: an examination of the reinvention of Irish lament as a healing tool in the contemporary world
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD - Doctor of Philosophyen
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