A Life Among the Dead: Stories from an Irish Funeral Director

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When death is a way of life . . .

In A Life Among the Dead, David McGowan, Ireland's best known Funeral Director, and subject of the Award-winning Netflix documentary The Funeral Director, guides us through the business, the science and the unexplained elements of death.

Alongside exploring the unique approach of Irish culture when it comes to grief and death, David seeks to demystify the process of dying and what happens to the body afterward.

The only certainty when we come into this life is that we are going to leave it, and yet it's something most people are reluctant to discuss or allow themselves to think about. David's mission is to open up conversations and encourage people to have an understanding of their loved ones wishes as well as their own.

Poignant, humorous and educational, this is an account of a life lived with purpose in the service of the dead.

Reviews

A profoundly compassionate, educational reflection on death, and the rites we've developed to help us say goodbye and to support us in our grief. McGowan's wise elder words, so conversational in style, are like finding yourself in a cosy pub by the fire with an extraordinary community ritual leader, and getting the chance to talk to him for hours, about what only he knows. -- Adrienne Murphy, The Irish Times

Author Bio

David McGowan is a master funeral director and embalmer based in the West of Ireland. He has a lifetime of experience in the death care profession. David has been an education provider to the funeral industry since 1995 when he established the Irish College of Funeral Directing and Embalming. He has trained funeral directors and embalmers from Ireland and abroad. He regularly appears on television and radio in Ireland, and in 2019 he was the subject of the RTS Award-winning documentary, The Funeral Director currently screening on Netflix.