On the subject of pre-Famine burial practices rty the article at the link http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&se=gglsc&d=5000578742 Rreference worth reading are Hospitality at wakes and funerals in Ireland from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century: some evidence from the written record Folklore, Dec, 2003 by Patricia Lysaght Crozier, M., " 'Powerful Wakes': Perfect Hospitality." In Ireland from Below. Social Change and Local Communities, ed. Chris Curtin and Thomas M. Wilson. 70-91. Galway: Officinia Typographica, 1987. Ballard, Linda M. "Dressing for Death." North Munster Antiquarian Journal 34 (1992):79-91. Regards Gill