Ireland summed up in an image, possibly

[waider]

Seen over the weekend: a hearse, complete with coffin, parked outside a shuttered-up pub; no funeral or indeed other cars or people in sight, and I'm not even sure if there was a driver in the hearse. Possibilities that have occurred to me so far:

• The obvious one: a wake will begin soon
• Publican died
• Pub patron died
• Hearse stopped there last night "for one pint"
• Hearse has merely pulled in to the side of the road to wait for the rest of the funeral to catch up (speeding being a serious problem in this country, as well as traffic congestion)

Feel free to contribute further suggestions.

Comments

[rimrunner.livejournal.com]

I don't know, but the setup sounds like something out of a folk song.

[candice.livejournal.com]

The coffin or its contents may be in transit from one place to another -for- a funeral; ie: died on one end of the country and getting buried on the other.

Though the college friend who worked summers at a funeral home (in Jersey, no less) said usually they did that with minivans; more discrete and less chance of fucking up an expensive hearse.

[zadcat.livejournal.com]

Bands have been known to use old hearses for schlepping their stuff, but I guess that doesn't account for the coffin.

[(Anonymous)]

Possible crime scene, and driver of coffin-loaded hearse was out the back of the pub awaiting the nod from the Gardaí and/or the state pathologist before fetching the coffin to remove body of dead burglar/drug user/heart attack victim.