THERE IS NO escaping the inevitability of our collective end. Death and taxes remain life’s only true certainties.
Given that, it’s surprising that we don’t discuss more about what to do after we finally depart. These tend to be questions left for the remaining loved ones to answer once someone has gone.
Humanity has always approached death in varying ways. Burial and cremation have been the prevailing approaches. In the late nineteenth century, advocates of cremation argued its benefits from a public health and sanitary perspective, asserting that Britain’s cemeteries and graveyards were not properly maintained.
They claimed that these burial grounds were sources of disease because bodies were not buried properly.
The cremation advocate, William Robinson, wrote a book in 1889 called Cremation and Urn-Burial, or The Cemeteries of the Future. In it, he said that the small cemeteries then in existence in London would disappear over time because land would become valuable and used for development.
Robinson argued that when cemeteries closed, graves ran into disuse and decay, which offended the living. Urn burials were less likely to offend the living, as the same space could be repurposed.
Robinson’s advocacy for urn burials was premised on the belief that such cemeteries would never have to close. Vaults, walls and passages could also be repurposed for the internment of ashes.
A modern send off
The location of a person’s body carries significant value in terms of their life and the interests of the deceased person. For many people, the physical remains of a person, placed in a coffin and buried in a grave, are the carrier of memories, images and desires. Cremation is another way of carrying these memories in a different way.
There are a number of informal activities associated with cremation. For example, facilitating the disposal of ashes at a sports ground is common practice in the United Kingdom. There are crematoria in England that have 10-year renewable leases for niches and memorials.
The scattering of ashes is regulated in several countries. In France, it is only permitted in specific areas, such as a designated scattering area in a cemetery. In Germany, each state has different laws about the scattering of ashes, and it is generally not allowed. In Ireland, the permission of the landowner is required, but there is no legislation governing the management of cremated remains.
Ashes can be distributed amongst family, especially if they are no longer living in the same country, but having a place to come and visit and remember their loved one, such as a memorial garden, is an important part of the grieving process. Conversations about cremated remains are relatively muted in Ireland.
Yet, there is an awareness that options beyond traditional family graves are necessary. For example, Ennis Cathedral provided a columbarium wall for the internment of ashes in 2021, which has been extended. Across the country, cemeteries are now offering space for the internment of ashes.
The growth of single-person households and smaller, dispersed family units, as well as blended families present a variety of challenges in maintaining traditional family graves. In Japan, there has been a profound shift in the memorialisation of cremated remains over the past half-century.
One revolutionary manifestation of this has been through the development of automated graves, also known as urban or ‘robotic’ columbaria. These use similar automated retrieval systems to those of industrial warehouses to manage urns. They tend to be in city centres, near train stations that allow families to visit with ease. They are also a place where those who have no families to tend to the grave can be cared for in perpetuity. This represents a significant shift away from traditional funeral practices where ashes are interned in a family plot in a rural cemetery.
Automated graves and leases for niches are not being discussed in Ireland, though discussions about the respectful memorialisation of cremated remains continue as more people choose cremation over burial. People often struggle to figure out the next step once they receive ashes. Indeed, there are families that keep ashes at home for many years, and others never collect them. In Britain, there are over 300,000 urns that have not been collected from funeral directors since the 1950s.
Ireland’s crematorium
Since the opening of the first crematorium in Ireland in Glasnevin Cemetery in 1982, Dublin Cemeteries Trust has led the way in the memorialisation of cremated remains in Ireland.
It has been an active cemetery since 1832, and seventy per cent of all funerals are cremations. The Garden of Remembrance in Glasnevin Cemetery is the first in Ireland.
Since then, the Trust has opened crematoria in Dardistown and Newlands Cross, and there are a variety of memorial gardens and columbarium walls built for families to have a place to inter the ashes of their loved ones, and others to bury them in a family grave.
Dublin Cemeteries Trust continues the ethos of Daniel O’Connell since it was founded in the 1820s of treating people of all faiths and none with dignity and respect.
Dublin Cemeteries Trust leads the way in continuing this core value as more and more people are choosing cremation. The variety of memorialisation options in Glasnevin, Dardistown and Newlands Cross Cemeteries shows how Dublin Cemeteries Trust is the thought leader in the memorialisation of cremated remains in Ireland.
Dr Brian Casey is Historian and Archives Manager for Dublin Cemeteries Trust.