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The Irish Enlightenment by Michael Brown (review)

156 an emerging class identity. In both cases, the memorials reflected deliberate decisions that served a variety of purposes. Relationships, affection, and identity are explored more generally in the last three essays of the section, which focus on archaeological material from Dublin’s graveyards and cemeteries and their history. Section IV, “Coming to Terms With Death,” explores living with death. Ciarán Mac Murchaidh parses the sermons of three eighteenth-century priests, James Gallagher, William Gahan, and Silvester Goonan; their sermons encouraged open discussions about death because the desire for a fulfilling life and peaceful death promoted civility among the living. However, as the second essay by Orla Fitzpatrick illustrates, not everyone has the chance at a fulfilling life. Churchsanctioned traditions were emotionally insufficient in handling the death of children as shown by the ubiquity of cillíni (burial grounds for unbaptized children) throughout the country. Fitzpatrick’s look at death photography reveals one—albeit uncommon—way in which children were kept present in memory. Irish examples of death photographs are scarce, demonstrating the taboo against accepting a dead body as a socialized being; that it was usually reserved for children suggests that the severity of loss can overcome social convention. Finally, Brian Hughes recounts the range of emotions felt by the relatives of the Easter Rising leaders after their executions. These deaths were felt throughout Ireland and are ingrained in the Irish historical narrative, but were also personal losses. As Hughes shows, the transcendental nature of the deaths interrupted private mourning rituals and often charged families with the responsibility to continuing the cause. Grave Matters goes beyond generic historical accounts of death and dying in Dublin by including elements of emotional experiences, social negotiation, and choice. It brings together elements of urban life that navigate the space between tradition and modernity and of an evolving sense of Ireland in a European context. Dublin was a stage in which events, trends, decisions, material consumption, consolation, and anxieties played out. This volume contributes to an understanding of how history haunts Dublin’s social landscape—demonstrating that death and dying will always fascinate the living. The medical finality of death may generally accepted, but its social finality is assuredly not.