Death notices and obituaries in provincial Ireland newspapers 1820-1900

This chapter explores the nature and function of obituaries and death notices in nineteenth-century Irish provincial newspapers. Employing a sample from a database of newspaper entries, it is argued that the use of obituaries and death notices in the pageantry of funerary culture in the nineteenth century served a dual purpose: firstly, it assisted the Catholic Church to exert control over funerary culture; and, secondly, it represents an expression of rising middle-class Catholic aspirations.