Death is famously unavoidable.

That’s why growing number of curious locals are signing up for an “enlightening” course that invites participants to look squarely at death and dying with openness, reflection and the promise of learning how to live a little better in the process.

What might once have been considered an awkward topic for polite conversation is now drawing full rooms, thoughtful questions and a surprising amount of interest from people keen to demystify life’s final certainty.

Following the death of a friend and wanting to face the reality of her eventual demise, Siofra Coughlan embarked on a path fuelled by both fear and curiosity. Nobody she knew wanted to discuss death so she went looking for those that would and found them.

Now Siofra is leading Telling the Bees, a ‘thought-provoking, enlightening and practical’ four-week course on the subject, at Ashton School in Ballintemple, starting on Tuesday, January 27th, 2026.

In Celtic mythology ‘telling the bees’ was a custom where the bees in their hives, regarded as beings of great wisdom and importance, would be quietly told of the important events of people in the household or community. Back in 2022, following the centuries-old tradition, the royal beekeeper, John Chapple, knocked gently on the beehives of Buckingham Palace and Clarence House and told the bees of the Queen’s death.

You can book a spot on the four-week course (€60) by emailing adulted@ashton.ie.