A New Life:Kieran Hourigan tells Olivia Kelleherhow he moved from the hotel and catering industry into the funeral business as an embalmer - a job he thoroughly enjoys
Kieran Hourigan dedicated the best part of his early 20s to the hotel industry but a fascination with funeral homes led the Limerick man to change his career path and pursue his true "vocation".
Recently qualified embalmer Kieran Hourigan was at a wedding in Limerick earlier this year and doing the obligatory "getting to know you" routine at the table before dinner when one of the guests asked him what he did for a living. Saying you work in a funeral home is the ultimate "conversation starter or killer", he says.
"Sometimes I just say I am a business manager. Other times people want to know all about it [ embalming] and I am conscious of it being a private thing. You are dealing with someone's mother, brother or sister. So it is a sensitive business. It is not a job for everyone. It is a vocation really."
Hourigan (28) from Dromkeen, Co Limerick, initially started out in the hotel trade as a trainee chef in Limerick. He received a degree in hotel and catering management in Galway and worked for a time in Germany and as a butler and entertainer in Bunratty Castle.
The "craic" in Bunratty was immense he says and he loved all aspects of hotel work and the trade in general. But the call of the funeral home was always there.
Hourigan says coming from a "country background", funerals were a huge part of people's lives. He remembers attending funerals from an early age and being drawn to the whole ritual aspect of the removal and requiem mass.
"I loved the sight of the coffins and the hearse and so on. The idea of working in a funeral home was always there. But it is a very difficult industry to get into. I finally got my leg in the door at the Gleasure Funeral Home in Tralee, where Pat Gleasure showed me the ropes. He is an embalmer - a fantastic guy who taught me a lot."
Hourigan recently received his diploma in embalming through the British Institute of Embalming at the South Tipperary School of Embalming in Clonmel under the tuition of Siobhan Hennessy Blackett. He finished his theory last June with a 95 per cent average and all he needs to do now is carry out his practical examination.
Hourigan, who is now employed at Kirwan's Funeral Home in Fairview Strand, Dublin, says working in a funeral home requires a certain amount of sensitivity - of judging what to say and what not to say to mourners on one of the saddest days of their lives.
"It's great when a family go in and see their mother and she is in a suit she wore to her daughter's wedding with the lipstick that they think suits her and so on.
"It is about dignity and respect to the end. You have to realise that this is someone's mother or sister and treat them as if they are one of your own family. You are entrusted to look after them and make them look their best.
"You also have to be a good judge of character. You should be able to get a certain amount of information without probing too much. So you know how to handle things. Every family is different. You know people are in shock and grief and you are there to help."
Hourigan says it is the little touches that make all the difference to families who are just at the beginning of the grieving process. For example, funeral homes often use the deceased person's brand of aftershave or perfume so mourners can literally pick up the familiar scent of their loved one.
"I would say to people bring me in her perfume or his aftershave. It is very important for the family from a psychology point of view to start the grieving process straight away. We say to people, 'We will be with you step by step at the end of the phone 24 hours a day'.
"There is wonderful customer satisfaction when you see how you have helped people."
Hourigan, who is based in Glasnevin in Dublin, says his years in the hotel trade were an enjoyable stepping stone to the true passion of his life.
He credits his parents for giving him a good grounding in life in a family where education was always to the fore.
Now that he has completed his diploma in embalming he has signed up for a music course in DIT. He will add this qualification to his hotel management and science degrees but Hourigan insists there is no danger of him changing his career path at this stage.
"I have been doing exams in some shape or other for the last 10 years. I suppose I have always had a fascination with forensic science and so on.
"I think my family are relieved I have decided on this!
"This is my ultimate. It is what I have always wanted to do. I loved all aspects of hotels but this is it for me. When you die all your family and friends are looking at you and I see no reason why you shouldn't look as well going out of this world as you did coming in. Sometimes you would have a little old frail lady to look after and you have to be very gentle with her.
"Statistics don't come in to this. This is always someone's mother, brother or sister. You do the very best you can for them."