IRISH FUNERALS, BASIC INFORMATION & FUNERAL RELATED WORDS & TERMS
LEGACY FUNERAL DIRECTORS – ONLINE AND ON YOUR SIDE.
If you are new to Ireland, this might be helpful Useful information about Irish funerals in Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland compiled by Legacy Online Funerals. Helpful if you are dealing with bereavement in Dublin or anywhere in Ireland, and were born and raised in another country with a different culture.
In Ireland the Funeral Director will help you with ALL funeral questions about:
What needs to happen after bereavement – documents, letters, identification. Legal and medical forms that need attention for funeral plans. Burial or Cremation questions, or moving your deceased relative from hospital to funeral home. Cremations Forms – ask your Legacy Funeral Director. Cremation Forms are very important, to be signed by
- Hospital doctor or GP,
- Executor or Next-of-kin organising the funeral,
- The Funeral Director. (The Funeral Director will help you with all this, at no extra cost.)
The Funeral Director will help if you have questions about Repatriation – about moving your dear deceased relative from one country to another. You are not alone, you can ask your Legacy Funeral Director all your important questions, whether that’s how to have your own kind of funeral in a different culture here in Ireland, or whether you wish to have the funeral in another country.
DEFINITIONS OF DIFFERENT WORDS AND FUNERAL TERMS USED IN IRELAND.
Funeral Home: Generally means a special place of rest or repose situated in the Funeral Directors’ premises – sometimes called a chapel-of-repose. Funeral Arrangements: Organising the funeral. The Funeral Director in Ireland works with the family to create a funeral ritual based on the family wishes for the departed relative or friend. At Legacy, your professional Funeral Director will help you with all stages of funeral plans from start to finish. Bereavement: the word to define the particular loss caused by a death in the family or circle of friend. Bereavement describes the family or friend suffering the shock, loss and trauma when somebody belonging to them dies. Reposal: A more modern version of the Wake takes place often at the Funeral Directors in day-time or early evening hours – often in a Funeral Home Chapel of Repose – or a family house – see funeral viewing below. Paying Respects: A term to describe when a friend or neighbour or relative of the deceased is part of the funeral – calling to visit the bereaved family or the body of the deceased person – or attending the church services to ‘pay respects’ to the person who has just died or passed away (*see note). Funeral Viewing: Time spent with the departed person, or the deceased person before a funeral. This gathering usually takes place in a Funeral Home, or at the house of the deceased person, or a close relative. Very often, the coffin will be open for a certain time so that people can come along and pay their respects. Repatriation is the term used to describe the process of moving a deceased person from one jurisdiction or country to another. Repatriation may be important in your family if you decide to have your relative transported to another country. Contact Legacy Funerals because we have specially trained staff that can help you decide on all the options involved in Repatriation. Funeral Parlour: The same as a Funeral Home, just a different word. A parlour is similar to the living-room in a family home. Funeral Mass: The name for the Church Funeral Service of the Catholic Church. A person of Catholic faith will usually have a Funeral Mass as part of the funeral ritual. For your convenience, see link to the main Catholic churches in the Dublin diocese. (Create link) Funeral Undertaker: Undertaker is another word for a Funeral Director. Historically, the Undertaker was a literal meaning in a European community sense. This person ‘undertakes’ the task of arranging a funeral, the meaning of the word formed the basis of an honourable promise. The Undertaker was, and remains, an important core community person. Legacy Funerals. upholds and re-imagines that same spirit of service – Legacy brings new online options yet retains traditional values. The word Undertaker can still be used in Dublin or all over Ireland – but Funeral Director is used more often now. Cremate/ Cremation: Disposal of a dead person’s body in a funeral ritual, which will burn the body and leave a legacy of ashes which can be returned to the family. Crematorium. The building and family chapel/gathering area where Cremation and Cremation Service takes place. In Dublin, we have Glasnevin Crematorium, Mount Jerome Crematorium and in Dublin West there is Newland’s Cross Crematorium. Removal. A Removal can be part of a Catholic funeral, usually the evening before the Funeral Mass, where the coffin with the deceased person is taken to the church for a prayer service and remains in the church overnight followed by the Funeral the next morning. (*See note) Grave. A plot of sacred ground, where, depending on the funeral wishes of the deceased person, the coffin with the remains of the dead person is buried as part of the funeral ritual. Cemetery. A large burial ground containing many smaller burial plots (see graves above). For Dublin funerals, cemeteries include Glasnevin Cemetery, Fingal Cemetery, Boharnabreena Cemetery, Mount Venus Cemetery, Mount Jerome Cemetery, Deans Grange Cemetery, St Fintan’s in Sutton Cemetery. ( See link to full list of Dublin Cemeteries.) Headstone. A Grave Marker – usually a stone or marble monument with the deceased person’s details inscribed on the grave stone – name, date of birth, date of death and often a funeral tribute message (epitaph) inscribed on the headstone. Death Notice: Traditionally, the Funeral Director will be asked by the family to put a death notice into national newspapers and online funeral websites like RIP.IE
Things to know about a Death Notice:
A Death Notice is not compulsory. You are free to choose no newspaper notice if that feel right. Speak to your Funeral Director – if you’d like a newspaper notice, it needs to be placed by the Funeral Director to the publication in question. Your Legacy Funeral Director will get you an exact cost for the newspaper notice, and also will help you keep the cost down by keeping the word count down. Also, your Funeral Director can help you to compose the words in a bereavement notice according to your wishes (*see more information in notes section). Cremation Urn: A Cremation Urn is a container to hold the ashes of the person who has been cremated. A Cremation Urn can be simple in style, or you can choose a more decorative container depending on your funeral wishes. Please note – in all Irish Cremations, you will be offered a simple urn as part of the Funeral process – and this urn will be included in your cost to the Crematorium. This container is suitable for airline regulations if your funeral plans include taking the Ashes to another country. Coffins: In Ireland, a coffin is generally used for all funerals whether Cremation is involved or burial, whether the funeral is religious based, or humanist or a civil funeral. Coffins are an important central part of a funeral procession, unless the person’s religion forbids it. On our Legacy Online Funeral Planner, (link) you’ll see pictures of coffins across the board, from simple coffins that are elegant and appropriate with a low cost, to more ornate coffins, which can be more expensive. You may have questions about coffins – so please speak with your Legacy Funeral Director who will guide you. At Legacy online Funerals we can help with funeral cost queries, give you expert advice on how to create a low-cost funeral as you will see if you explore this Legacy Low Cost Funerals website. After somebody dies or passes away, the Legacy Funeral Director is empowered to speak on your behalf if you wish us to enquire with cemeteries, crematoriums, newspapers or online publications for death notices.
Notes on the above:
Removals are not so popular in recent years. Now, in Catholic Funerals, the Funeral Mass often forms the main funeral ritual and the deceased reposes in the funeral home or in the family home until it is time for the Funeral Mass. *A typical death notice gives details of the deceased person’s name, date of death, place of death, where they are from, family details of those left behind, and also the funeral times, reposal times, Mass times if applicable and finally burial or cremation details. In recent years, online funeral notices on websites like RIP.IE have become the norm, but people still often use newspaper notices as well such as the death notice sections in the Irish Independent, The Irish Times, The Examiner, The Evening Herald and others. Paying Respects: Traditionally in Irish funerals, like many cultures all over the world, communities gather in close to the bereaved family during loss and sorrow. This continues to define the shape and the importance of funerals in Dublin and all over Ireland. As Legacy Funeral Directors, and privileged to work alongside families in time of loss, we see first hand how supportive friends are both there for the family, but also deeply honour the need for space and privacy in bereaved families when people are so vulnerable. Legacy Funeral Directors – online and on your side.