This weekend we buried my father- in -law on a warm wet hillside in Ireland, huddled under umbrellas, moving as One in this ceremony of Remembrance, this last - long - walk sounding the death – knell – bell.
He was buried as he lived, surrounded by music, a man who belonged to the show band era at a time when men made music but no money. Rather, they knew the real meaning of music. So we followed the jaunty macabre “New Orleans” jazz band as they played “Summertime” and “When the Saints go marching in”, swaying to the beat. At the graveside a solitary fiddler played “The Coolin” as the coffin lowered to sobbing refrain. Haunting and frail and defiant, fingers wind around the notes.
“The Coolin” is an old Irish lament first mentioned 200years ago at the Belfast Harp Gathering where it was played by harpists. A woman sings it to her lover, saying she prefers the coolin hairstyle. It’s a disguised rebel song too, because the coolin hairstyle was that worn by the Druids, the Celtic chieftains and the original Celtic Christian monks before Catholicism came to Ireland. The hairline is shaved back to behind the ears and the hair is worn in long curly locks down the back. It was a mark of defiance .This man buried today was a non conformist too.
In the funeral mass a tenor sang “Somewhere my Love”, Laras Theme from the film, Doctor Zavago. It was a favourite tune between him and his wife. And, proving that some things survive the grave, Jessica sang an Irish shanos, Suil Na Ruin, to the accompaniment of Sophy on the harp, two of his grand children.The music went on long into the night. Loss and Love and Song. He passes on and passes on the music.
In mythical ceremonies like this there is a bigger picture. In this moment I remember the true meaning of “Al-lah”, a meaning beyond any religion. “Al-lah” means “The Real”, an interpretation of which means the awareness of a “Unity” beyond individual existence, that Greater Unity in which we play our part, and of which we catch occasional glimpses….as I do now burying this man in the ground and into memory.
