How could funerals be more enjoyable than weddings?

An old friend – with tongue in cheek – once admitted that he preferred attending funerals to weddings. And he had a number of reasons for this, none of which involved a predilection for sadness.

It was the preparation and cost of a wedding for starters; a good suit or dress, a present, an enforced overnight stay in a hotel; one day no longer does it either, so this is a weekend affair, excluding any recovery time required.

The day itself frequently involves sitting with people you either don’t know or don’t like – or sometimes it ends up as both.

The relatives are spread out to avoid marital ghettoisation, and if you’re reasonable placid you may pay the price for it, because you’ll be the Henry Kissinger stuck between two warring old aunts.

As life goes on, your wedding invites have less to do with your friendship with the bride or groom and more likely to be down to the fact that you’re a friend of one or other set of parents.

So not alone are you there under obligation, but you guiltily know in your heart of hearts that your presence has deprived the bridal party of two friends they’d love to have invited if only the old fogies weren’t taking up their seats.

In a nutshell, you didn’t particularly want to be there and they didn’t particularly want you there either – but protocol and parents determined otherwise.

Then there are the speeches which can go on for longer than some of the actual marriages; a best man who thinks he’s Billy Connolly when in fact he’s Billy Blather – and a father of the bride who looks like he’s about to be shot in front of a large spotlight.

But with a funeral, you go for as long as you wanted – all day or twenty minutes; you can wear a suit or your jeans; you sit where you want to sit or don’t sit at all.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App

Download the Connacht Tribune Digital Edition App to access to Galway’s best-selling newspaper.

Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.

Or purchase the Digital Edition for PC, Mac or Laptop from Pagesuite  HERE.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.