Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
Life Stories from a Wexford Undertaker and Publican (Joe Hammel, Kilmuckridge, Co. Wexford)
Here is a very special interview. It was recorded in February 2019 in the bar of Joe Hammel in Kilmuckridge and covers the background to Joe's family but also tells the story of the locals who Joe looked after during their lives and death. There is a great nature in Joe (and his family) and this shines through here.
The chat is 73 minutes long and it covers things such as local pictures, plays and entertainment to local funeral customs and practices. He talks about emigration, TB, poor housing and the social conditions of the local community. His accounts of funeral practices from Ballygarrett and Kilmuckridge are pure gold and include accounts of stopping at cross-roads, filling in the graves, crossing the shovels and how in Donaghmore, the graves would only be dug when the coffin would be leaving the chapel in Ballygarrett. We even chat about a Luftwaffe pilot (Franz Gunther) that his father buried and local accounts from the 1920/1921 war years.
Too much to go into here, but one thing that really struck me was how good Joe and his family were to the locals and how much they cared for them, especially those who had to emigrate for work. One story really struck me was of a local man who emigrated and how the farmer he worked for had to write him a reference for when he got to England. It went like this;
To whom it may concern
I lost my father. I lost my mother. I lost stock, horses and sheep but the biggest loss of all is the bearer of this letter.
Joe nearly cried when he told me that. That's the nature of this man.
Enjoy this and thanks Joe.
Text: Michael Fortune
Life Stories from a Wexford Undertaker and Publican (Joe Hammel, Kilmuckridge, Co. Wexford)
Here is a very special interview. It was recorded in February 2019 in the bar of Joe Hammel in Kilmuckridge and covers the background to Joe's family but also tells the story of the locals who Joe looked after during their lives and death. There is a great nature in Joe (and his family) and this shines through here.
The chat is 73 minutes long and it covers things such as local pictures, plays and entertainment to local funeral customs and practices. He talks about emigration, TB, poor housing and the social conditions of the local community. His accounts of funeral practices from Ballygarrett and Kilmuckridge are pure gold and include accounts of stopping at cross-roads, filling in the graves, crossing the shovels and how in Donaghmore, the graves would only be dug when the coffin would be leaving the chapel in Ballygarrett. We even chat about a Luftwaffe pilot (Franz Gunther) that his father buried and local accounts from the 1920/1921 war years.
Too much to go into here, but one thing that really struck me was how good Joe and his family were to the locals and how much they cared for them, especially those who had to emigrate for work. One story really struck me was of a local man who emigrated and how the farmer he worked for had to write him a reference for when he got to England. It went like this;
To whom it may concern
I lost my father. I lost my mother. I lost stock, horses and sheep but the biggest loss of all is the bearer of this letter.
Joe nearly cried when he told me that. That's the nature of this man.
Enjoy this and thanks Joe.
Text: Michael Fortune
