'Coffin Raiders' or, Love in the Age of Ageing; A WICKEDLY FUNNY TAKE ON MODERN IRELAND

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Byline: Anne Gildea

I'm having a pint with a friend and her husband, and suddenly she's in matchmaker mode. 'You should think about older men,' she says. 'Actually, we know a nice guy.'

She describes the chap, tells me a bit about him, mentions his name. 'But he's dead,' her husband chips in. 'Oh yeah, sorry,' she says, 'I forgot, we were at his funeral a while back.'

Forgive me, I know that funerals are no laughing matter, but I'm still chuckling about that exchange. It was the notion that they were suggesting someone for me who was so old, he was dead already. The idea that they were trying to instigate that most life-enhancing of emotions -- love -- but they were thwarted by that most contrary of conditions -- death. The fact I'm of an age where …