"But, I'll always defend the human need for grim dark humour,"
Me too
It's those who mean it that worry me
There's a wonderful story, claimed to be true, about this town during the Famine
The carts used to go around picking up the bodies, bring them through Miltown and turning at Canada Cross up to The Ballard Cemetery
One was makig the turn when a body fell off and landed in the gutter outside the blacksmith's shop (owned by a blacksmith later to be celebrted in the song as one of the 'Three Brave Blacksmiths' who were imprisoned for refusing to shoe a landlady's horse because of her treatment of tenants)
The blacksmith ran out and attempted to help the driver lift the body back onto the cart - it woke up
The smith brought the man in, fed him and gave him a job, he survived for another fourteen years
The smithy is still there, though now empty - it was still operational when we moved here
Not funny, but extremely heartening
Jim