Funeral

Attended a funeral at the Free Church, Kenneth Street, this morning. Very large attendance. The cortège commenced at the County Hotel and stretched all the way up Kenneth Street to Scotland Street, then up Lewis Street as far as St Columba's. Numerous shopkeepers and residents stood outside their premises and homes, and the priest stood outside the Roman Catholic Church on Scotland Street. Total distance 700 yards, which is indicative of a huge funeral. Police had closed the roads, which allowed the males in the congregation to file up the street, on either side. A strangely dignified spectacle, as two rows of men in dark garb slowly marching up the street. At the head of the procession was the coffin, borne by alternating mourners, six at a time. Not everyone was able to participate in the lift. The deceased has now been laid to rest in the Eye Cemetery at Aignish, some 4 miles east of Stornoway. I close this post with an image of the cemetery. The word Eye has nothing to do with the sensory organ; it is a corruption of the name of the area, Braighe na h-Aoidhe, where the latter word has been transmuted into Eye.