IRELAND’S FIRST eco-friendly graveyard is now open for business and has already reported over 100 bookings.
The Woodbrook Natural Burial Ground is located in a remote spot near the Blackstairs Mountains between the villages of Kiltealy and Killanne in Co Wexford.
At an “open day” on Saturday, visitors toured the new burial ground. It offers an alternative to traditional cemeteries for people of all religions and none, who want to be buried in a graveyard which doubles as a wildlife haven.
Headstones and plastic wreaths are banned, there are “no manicured lawns”. Graves will be marked by the planting of a tree and a simple, optional stone or wooden marker, said Colin McAteer, owner of the Green Graveyard Company.
The company claimed the venture would reduce the cost of funerals as the natural burial ground would be “cheaper to maintain than a conventional graveyard” and would contribute to sustainability by encouraging the use of “environmentally sound” coffins made from natural material such as willow, cardboard, bamboo and banana leaf.
The price of plots, “inclusive of VAT”, ranges from €715 for “a single” to €2,497 for a family of four who would be “buried side by side and not stacked”. For those opting for cremation, the cost of an “ashes plot” is less than €300.
Reaction was enthusiastic.
Among the many visitors was local GP, Dr Jutta O’Meara (62), who described herself as “not religious” and “greenish” and had already decided to book a plot. She especially liked the idea of the eco-coffin. “The thought of putting good mahogany furniture with brass handles into the ground; it’s madness,” she said.
Noel McCoy (61), from Naas, Co Kildare, who dropped in for a look en route to Rosslare, was thinking of buying a plot. His wife, Jane (57) explained: “My sister has her place booked for years, so it’s something you have to think about”.
Fr Danny McDonald, the Catholic parish priest of nearby Marshalstown had no problem with the concept “if it’s what people feel they want”.
Suppliers of funerary services attended the event to showcase their wares. A Co Meath-based company, Treasured Keepsakes displayed a contemporary mourning jewellery, including silver and gold pendants in the shape of miniature urns, designed to hold the cremated remains or a lock of hair of the departed loved one.
Judith Hoad (73) from Inver, Co Donegal, sold booklets on compiling a living will. She is a well-known advocate of sustainable funerals who established a movement called “Bury Me Green” and famously buried her late husband “on a plank, in the garden” at home.
She said Irish legislation on burial was vague, based on Victorian rules and only stipulated that “a body must be dressed respectably and handled with dignity”.
