Stories from a NYC funeral director

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PODCAST – How funerals of the city’s most famous residents are conducted that bit differently.

Irish-American funeral director Michael Burke has over 30 years serving the families of Manhattan and Brooklyn. In this podcast, he shares his stories of funerals in the Big Apple recounting how Jackie Kennedy Onassis was laid out in her Upper East Side apartment, why one wealthy New Yorker had a full funeral for his German Shepherd and how the Irish have had a huge and lasting impact on the American funeral service.

He has also written a biography of Fitz-James O’Brien, an Irish-born writer who died in the US Civil War (link below). Michael is currently writing a biography about John Mackay, an Irishman who emigrated to New York becoming the 17th richest person in the world by the time he died in 1902.
His book Fitz-James O’Brien: American Soldier can be found here