Odhràn Dunne (France): “A Great Send Off”
In Ireland the funeral takes place during two days.
Two days during which the family rarely separates from the deceased. Two days during which, one after the other, friends, neighbours, etc. Come to show their respect, to have a last word, a last kiss, a last caress. A longer time than in other cultures, during which relatives immerse themselves in and appropriate the departure of the deceased. A break from the routine continuum of everyday life to focus only on the first stages of mourning, and the last goodbye.
During this process, marked by different highlights, the family receives as much as it gives: in the chapel where, for three hours, the family shakes hands with all those who have come to pay homage, the funeral wake in the house of one of its members, then to the church, the burial, etc. Traditionally, hospitality is at the heart of these funerals because the family honors the memory of the deceased by generously receiving guests in their home. Biscuits, tea, soup, beer, and other dishes are prepared and made available to all. Through these different moments the emotions are mixed to the rhythm of remembered stories. In the midst of the living who celebrate the life of the newly dead, the body in its coffin sits enthroned, in full view. Everyone can approach it, touch it, according to their desire. Thanks to this organization there is a form of habituation at the start, nothing is rushed and everyone has time to find their rhythm and their relationship to death.
Joan Dunne died on March 6, 2019 in Mullingar, the town where she lived most of her life. Her six children, and her family, respected the traditions of their country by offering her a funeral proper to their culture so that she had “a great send off”.
After a baccalaureate in electrical engineering and audiovisual training at the new Sorbonne, Paris 3, Dunne Odhràn left for Ireland for seven months to do his first photo reportage on the celebrations of the centenary of the first Irish uprising; The Easter Rising and to discover a little more about his Irish origins.
On the strength of this experience, he decided on his return to perfect his photographic practice, with the formation of EMI-CFD in 2017. Since then, he has worked freelance and collaborated with Le Monde, the magazine Manière de voir and the PSG Magazine. In 2019, he was the winner of the Paris Match student photoreportage prize and had exhibition at the “Off” festival of the Promenades Photographiques de Vendôme.
Visas de l’ANi 2022
March 14 – April 1, 2022
Les Gobelins, l’École de l’image
73 Bd Saint-Marcel, 75013 Paris, France
www.ani-asso.fr
