Death Customs from rural Newfoundland - Patricia Dohey, St. Brides, Newfoundland

Death Customs from rural Newfoundland - Chairs Turned Upside Down and The Lone Priest
Here is some more folklore from one area of rural Newfoundland and this time it is centred around Death Customs and Beliefs. This is pure gold and it’s from an interview I did with Patricia Dohey back in 2019.
The clip is much longer but I’ve edited two particular stories which grabbed me.
The first is an account of chair being turned upside down at a wake so that the devil had nowhere to sit. I heard of versions of this here in Ireland too and basically when you’d walk into a wake, the chairs would be upside down. You’d turn around your chair right and sit on it but you’d leave the others upside down as your didn’t want the devil to rest if he was in the room. Her account comes from a neighbouring community of Point Lance which was Irish to the bone. Still is.
The next thing she talks about is hearing that you should never leave a Priest by himself with a person on the way out. You should always keep him company as the story was the devil was doing his rounds and would be in a battle with the Priest for the soul of the person was dying. The belief was the extra company gave the Priest that bit more support and power over the devil.
These are powerful accounts and Patricia is so clear in her telling. I recorded an hour with her in 2019 and I’m only editing it up this week. Can’t believe the content from her - story after story. Anyone else hear these?
Text: Michael Fortune