A funeral is made up of 2 elements, the Ceremony and the Disposal-Repose of the remains :
- It is normally best to be clear on the Disposal-Repose first, with the options being :
- Burial – Traditional, Natural or Woodland.
- Cremation – Gas (all current Crematoria in Ireland, Electric or Water).
- Other such as Organic Dispersal, but these are not yet available in Ireland.
- Then it will be easier to plan the Service / Ceremony / Celebration of Life.
The Fee’s with the Funeral Director for the Funeral itself have categories:
- Funeral Director Package :
- Typically includes the Removal of the deceased from the place of death, coffin, hearse to ceremony & repose, FD professional fees for the co-ordination and arrangement of all elements.
- Embalming, Dressing & Preparation, Additional movements may or may not be included
- Also some funeral directors may breakdown the costs so that all parts are itemized.
- Disbursements (or 3rd party costs) -purchase of a grave, grave opening, grave registration, doctors & coroners fee’s, flowers, media announcements, music and offerings to the church are re-charged on a pass through basis (with no mark up).
Where cost is an issue it is worth noting that there are extra costs around Funerals on weekends and Bank holidays that can be avoided by waiting until the next working day. It is also worth discussing detailed costs with the funeral director in advance to avoid a situation which neither party wants when it comes to payment ~1 month after the funeral.
Increasingly Funeral directors are offering a broader range of services. There is an increasing movement away from a set ceremony which acknowledges the death of the person to a celebration of their life. However everyone’s circumstances are different and if little discussion has taken place in advance, and with the relatively short time from death to the funeral there is still a general tendency to go with the traditional.
To organize the funeral you will need to :
- Let people know of the death (family, friends and others your loved one shared interests and time with), but ask for help in this regard
- Select a Funeral Director.
- As per the ‘Wishes’ document the details of the arrangements will need to be worked through. The norm for a funeral to take place is 2-4 days after death. However there is no rush so please don’t feel under additional pressure in this regard.
- Decide on other elements, the location and also how private the family home will be. Wake, viewing or removal
- Fix the location/s, dates and times.
- Your funeral director can help on the media side (RIP.ie / Newspapers / Radio /etc..)
- Depending on the location of service/ceremony, work through with some or all of
- Funeral team from the place of worship.
- Funeral Director
- Celebrant
- Decide on who will Eulogise the deceased.
- Pick out clothes for the deceased and items to place on the coffin.
- Decide on who take the active roles in the service
- Whether people will disperse or have refreshments with some/all of the mourners
Due to COVID the 2021 census moved to Sunday 3rd April 2022. With this information not yet being available the previous census information from 2016 is used below. Indeed since approximately 30% of funerals have no religious element then the table below is not an indication of people’s choice for their funeral.
| Religion | Number | % | |
| NO religion | 451,941 | 9.6% | |
| Christian | 3,992,791 | 85.1% | |
| Catholic | 3,729,115 | 78.3% | |
| Anglican(IncI Church of Ireland ) | 126,414 | 2.6% | |
| Orthodox | 62,187 | 1.3% | |
| Presbyterian | 24,211 | 0.5% | |
| Other | 95,746 | 2.0% | |
| Islam | 62,032 | 1.3% | |
| Hindu | 13,729 | 0.3% | |
| Buddhist | 9,358 | 0.2% | |
| Total population | 4,689,921 |