geansaí forged in coarse, rope-like wool by the brisk hands of the women in their lives. The geansaí does the direct opposite of preserve life—it is the life-ender. It swamps them, colluding with the sea to pull them under. There is even contingency for their deaths worked into each geansaí, a particular turn of wool—patterns and cables, in cuffs or necks—to identify which family owns the corpses when they’re returned, not only unrecognisable
