The Death Lady’s Cottage

The Death Lady’s Cottage

A one-hour radio documentary for LMFM

Funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee

This one-hour documentary explores the life of Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross who came up with what could be the most famous psychological model in existence: The Five Stages of Grief, also known as the Kübler-Ross model.

The documentary delves into her life as a researcher and thinker, but with particular interest in her strange connection with Ireland—for nearly fifteen years from 1990 to 2004 she owned a small cottage in Co Louth where she came to write. Using personal stories from neighbours who met her on the lane, family members and colleagues she knew in Ireland, the documentary uncovers the important story of a woman who found a refuge in Ireland in the midst of world-wide fame.

We all know the psychological model, even if we can’t name where it came from. The Five Stages of Grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance – it has become the go-to source of guidance when talking about the grieving. But what may come as surprise is that the model is just 50 years old this year, with roots in a single book published in 1969 by a fiery psychiatrist intent on changing how the grieving process was thought of around the world.

Dr Elisabeth Kübler-Ross was born in Switzerland in 1926, was educated and worked in the USA for most of her life before dying in August 2004. She was the author of 25 books, including On Death and Dying, which in 1969 catapulted her to global fame with the presentation of her Five Stages of Grief. She was presented with nineteen honorary degrees, named woman of the decade in the 1970s by the Ladies Home Journal, and became known—affectionately—as the Death and Dying Lady.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross first came to Ireland in the late 1980s, invited by a bourgeoning group of women therapists who wanted to learn from a leader in their field. What is today known as the Turning Point Institute in Dublin hosted seminars by Kübler-Ross, and it is at this point that it appears Kübler-Ross fell in love with Ireland, enough that she purchased a place of her own on the Island.

Nestled in the Cooley Mountains near Omeath, in north County Louth, is a little stone cottage with a broad garden and views of Carlingford Lough. There is no blue plaque on the cottage, and the only people who know that the cottage was once owned by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross are the long-standing neighbours and the current owners, who noticed her name on the deed of ownership. Kübler-Ross spent the summers writing at the cottage, her booming American voice lodged in the minds of those neighbours she met on the laneways.

Using their stories and others, the documentary unfolds the personal story of one of the most important women of the 20th Century, a scholar who sought safety and refuge in the Cooley Mountains of County Louth.

The documentary was funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland with the Television Licence Fee and produced by Chris Nikkel for Little Road Productions Ltd, based in Co. Louth (www.littleroadproductions.com).

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