@whatever1980
Going to a wake of someone you never met and you may even have only met their relative once is difficult for me as a blowin.
I thought wakes and funerals were to say goodbye not hello nice to meet you.
I’m Scottish not Irish. But here it’s seen an important to have a good turn out at a funeral - which means a lot of people. You would feel terrible if you heard that there were only a few people at a funeral of a family member of someone you knew.
The English thing of a small private funeral isn’t really done here.
It’s not just people who knew the deceased who attend. One of my colleagues lost his adult son last year and almost everyone in our small company of 20 people attended, even though none of us had ever met his son. It was about supporting him and his wife.
It’s also not that we were all close friends with the colleague - in fact he’s a very difficult person who is not well liked . It’s done because it’s the right thing to do.
Also people will go to represent eg their church, workplace or community organisation.
Eg at my uncles funeral I met a youngish man who said he never met my uncle but he was there because he was a close friend of his late father and they worked together for years down the pits.
And the president of the bowling club, who didn't know my uncle well but was there in his official capacity as my uncle was a long serving member but hadn’t played for the last few years because of health problems.
My uncle was a church elder and people came to represent other local churches.
As PP said it’s a mark for respect for the deceased and a sign of support for the bereaved.
I can’t tell you how strange is it for us to attend lockdown funerals of 2” people with no singing or recited prayers and only limited music. You are not even allowed to carry the coffin or throw dirt in the grave.