Irish website promises you'll never miss a funeral again Irish netizens and their country's diaspora need never miss an important demise in their homeland again, after the launch of DeathIreland.com. The site promises to keep subscribers "up to date with all the deaths in your town, city or county - and much more". The much more appears to be interactive mapping to every church and …
I think there was one called rip.ie as well. Biggest shock to my system when moving to Ireland was the whole death thing; not only do you have the funeral, but also the "removal" the day before (both excuses for a drink), and its routine to go to the funerals of people you've never met; I was dragged along to the funeral of a friend of my partner's father within weeks of moving here (never met the guy in my life, and certainly not in his...) and the church was mobbed. And yet I wasn't expected to put on a black suit and tie as I wasn't a family member. Its all very confusing for a poor (non-practising) protestant English boy.
I suspect every politician in the country will be signing up for this (and expensing it too!). Election posters, manifestos, and black-tie dinners are all well and good, but you can't beat being seen at a funeral as a sure-fire vote-getter.
Mine is the long black frock coat that helps lend the right air of sombre gravitas to the tea & sympathy process. You don't mind if I help myself to this last bun, do you?
As a Northern Irelander, It always amazes me how long it is before the funeral happens in England, though here, if the death was on a Friday and the funeral is on a Monday, it's a bit of hassle getting the afternoon off. I think waiting two weeks is a bit extreme and just prolongs things too much.
Not all of us treat the wake and the post-funeral food as an excuse for a drink though, unless you mean tea.
Living in a rural area with lots of country churches, nearly every funeral I've been to has been in a church or conducted by the minister in the person's home and there are loads of people who will never darken a church door on a Sunday, but will go to every funeral.
I understand the funeral popularity (it's a bit like that in the north of Scotland too) but I don't get the tracking element of the site; do you pick ten likely candidates each year? Seems a bit like death bingo; what happens if you get a full house? Discount on next year if none of your numbers come up?
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