women. Phyllida Anam-Áire, author of The Celtic Book of Dying, heard keening in its traditional environment in the Donegal Gaeltacht in the 1940s, and described and sang a rendition of what she heard. The lack of authentic recordings of keening songs may be due to the reluctance of singers to share something so private. In popular culture John Millington Synge's one-act play Riders to the Sea (1904) features a chorus of women from the Aran Islands mourning the death of their loved ones at sea. In 1986, Robin Williams and Carol Burnett performed a comical version of a keening song for a sketch called "The Funeral" as part of Carol, Carl, Whoopi and Robin. See also Coronach Sean-nós singing Death wail Oppari Kulning References Bibliography Death customs Death music Irish culture Irish music Scottish culture Scottish music Women and death Banshees