Saturday, July 30, 2011

Sounds of an Irish Graveyard

Garrankinnefeake Sounds (mp3)


Last week, my mom was telling me about how, when visiting our grandparents’ house, all my five-year-old sister wanted to do was get McDonalds and eat it in the cemetery where my grandmother is buried, like they had done last time they visited. This kid owns my heart. (We also discovered yesterday that we both want to be mermaids when we grow up.) Personally, I can’t think of anything that sounds so nice and peaceful. I spend more than average amounts of time in cemeteries, so adding a McDouble to the experience sounds like perfection. This fondness for the company of names and stones (combined with a love for Ireland and Irish history that takes up the entire upper right portion of my heart) is what made me so excited to find this audio clip by Historic Graves, as part of the Day of Archaeology. Historic Graves is an Ireland-based grassroots heritage project designed to train local community groups in low-cost, high-tech field surveys of historic graveyards and the recording of their own oral histories. This three-minute clip of the noises in the Garrankinnefeake cemetery in east Cork is the most peaceful thing I’ve heard all week. I've been replaying it constantly since last night. What’s more, the website has an entire section devoted to audio and video of graveyard-related projects, as well as a blog. Oh, what’s that? I just made your day? You’re welcome.

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