A Northern Ireland undertaker has begun broadcasting funerals live on the internet for friends and relatives that cannot make it, writes Michelle McDonagh
Mourners living abroad in places as far-flung as Australia, Africa and Canada, and those who are too sick or frail to attend the funeral of a family member of friend, can now watch the service taking place in Co Down live online.
Funeral director Jim Clarke of S Clarke and Son, says he has had a very positive response since he began offering his webcasting service at the family business's two multidenominational funeral churches in Bangor and Newtownards.
Apparently, the concept is becoming increasingly popular in countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia, where mortuaries are setting up internet services to allow families remote attendance to their relatives' last rites.
"Families had been asking us regularly if we could take a tape recording of the funeral service, so that if somebody was sick or abroad they could watch it. There are a lot of people from Northern Ireland abroad. When I started researching it two years ago, there was nothing out there so we decided to introduce the online service while we were refurbishing our Bangor Bereavement Centre," explains Clarke.
Clarke, who runs the business with his 80 year-old father John, also decided to incorporate the service into their bereavement centre in Newtownards during a recent refurbishment there. He points out that they "don't make a song and dance" out of the service which is free to funeral parties.
Cameras have been discreetly built into the buildings, internally and externally so that those watching live online can see the mourners arriving at the church, watch the entire service and see the hearse and cortege leaving afterwards.
Clarke stresses the importance of security when providing such a service and explains that only friends and relatives with a username and secure password can view the service.
In addition to their normal services, S Clarke and Son also provide professional and confidential grief counselling, grief support groups and public seminars on grief-related issues.
Neil Massey, MD of Rom Massey and Sons in Dublin, feels the undertaker should be more of a background figure at a funeral, as he is, after all, charging for his services.
"We are not involved with the family before the death if there is a sickness or in the grieving process. The work we do helps them to get through the initial days of the grieving process, but I think we should be more of a background figure or we run the risk of being insincere," he comments.
He points out that the Catholic churches usually have some form of parish-based support group for the bereaved and he gives the number of the Bereavement Counselling Service in Dublin (01-8391766) to those who need it.
Massey does not think people in the Republic would like the idea of live webcasting of funerals and he's not sure how the priests would take to the idea either.
"Generally, people tend to shy away from even having videos at funerals because of superstition or tradition, but some do tape the proceedings. We will probably see a lot more change in Ireland in the future with so many people of different religions now living here," he says.
Michael Lyons, a director of O'Connor's Funeral Directors in Cork says he does not think there would be much demand for online services among his clientele.
"You are talking about a different generation of people who are going to funerals, people in their 50s and 60s. A lot of them are not really into internet. They are still looking up the deaths notices in the paper, not on websites," he says.
Lyons points out that with modern air transport, it's very rare nowadays for people not to be able to travel home for the funeral of a family member or loved one.
Charlie Sullivan of Sullivan's Funeral Home in Co Cork is winding down towards retirement after 45 years in the business and he says broadcasting funerals live on the internet is not something they are planning to do.
"I would have though Irish people would not like the idea of that, but there's always a new way," he muses.