Dublin Funerals – Dignity in Death

A Jennings Funeral Director reflects and notices changing patterns in funeral services, funeral costs, challenges of different funeral eras, funeral hymns may change, but Dublin remains loyal to dignified funeral tributes and traditional arrangements.

The Dublin cityscape changes constantly – the pace of working life, the weather, the traffic, the economy – rising and falling like notes on a hymn sheet. Journalists fling words like boom and bust about like snuff at a Dublin wake; the media might grieve and lament about lost opportunity, about politics full of broken promises and arrangements, but Dublin doesn’t seem to take much heed, notices very little of all that bluster, and instead manages to simply get on with things – life, work and service to community carrying on in orderly procession; from birth to death, christenings to funerals, the working life of the city coping good-naturedly with all kinds of change – from loss to gain and back again.

And loss of a starker kind is enfolded with great dignity into Dublin life. And death. Jennings Funerals Directors are well placed to chart the changing face of Dublin Funerals, and the most remarkable feature of change is that despite progress and speed and the pace of life, so much about Dublin funeral services remains the same.

Like the spirit of Dublin’s Five Lamps across from Jennings Funeral Directors of Amiens Street, Dublin people’s attitude to funerals remains respectful, full of dignity, and deeply important. Funeral custom and traditions change – wakes, removals, funeral flowers and wreaths, coffin and casket options. But attendance at funerals continues to surge and expand as the city itself spreads out. Funeral tributes and attendance remains important to Dubliners – surviving all kinds of change. The Five Lamps at Jennings Funeral Directors Head Office is an iconic reflection of this – the decorative lamp-post with five lanterns actually survived the German bombs of World War 11 when three bombs were dropped in the North Strand area, killing 28 people and injuring 90, all in the space of 37 minutes.

Changing funeral customs

Having said that, Jennings Funeral Directors are deeply aware that funeral patterns are changing rapidly for the first time in 50 years – ‘It never ceases to amaze me how a person will show up for a Removal or a Funeral,’ says Senior Funeral Director Dave Cannon ‘especially from the wider circle where a work colleague might have no connection to the deceased, but simply wants to pay respects. Life is fast and stressful for people. Wages might be better than in the 1940’s, but work demands are huge. And yet every day, as the funerals progress from our Chapels of Repose, often in the midst of traffic congestion, we are amazed at how people somehow manage to get here on time to pay their respects and show support.’

The head office of Jennings long-standing Dublin Funeral Directors is centrally located, both historically, geographically, and from an acute observational perspective at the Five Lamps crossroads. Jennings know more than most how bereavement challenges people like nothing else. Death flings trauma into the heart core of the immediate family. And these days, thankfully, the Dublin undertaker can direct the bereaved family’s notice towards the wide range of counselling services available. But bereavement also challenges those less emotionally affected, like the wider community of friends and working colleagues.

Because life always throws up difficulties, especially in the midst of bereavement.

How families in bereavement cope with changing funeral trends like the one-movement-funeral service.

Take, for example, the newly emerging pattern where families opt for a one-service funeral, where they inter the old traditional custom of having the remains of their beloved departed family member removed to the Church for a service on the evening before the Funeral Mass. In modern times, this makes sense for all kinds of reasons – from change in religious practice to the more mundane considerations of time and traffic and stress.

Funeral costs also comes into play here, because in times of deep recession, a removal of any level of financial stress can be helpful in terms of budget and funeral arrangements; although if your family prefer to have the evening removal to the church, followed by the funeral Mass the next morning, your Funeral Director is also highly trained in helping you save on costs elsewhere in the arrangements. David Cannon explains – ‘It’s deeply important to assure the family that a truly professional Funeral Director will help you in cutting costs with an expert eye. Cost-conscious funerals does not have to mean cheap funerals. Every family deserves the dignity of a meaningful and beautiful tribute to their beloved deceased family member, and it’s the Funeral Director’s job to help you price a funeral without sacrificing quality of tribute.’

Attendance at Funerals, Removals, Funeral Mass

Does this new pattern of dispensing with a Funeral Removal and opting for a one-church-service spell the death-knell for funeral attendance?

Not yet, according to Jennings Funeral Directors, – although Undertaker David Cannon acknowledges that the one-service trend in Dublin funerals is essentially a removal of choice for those wishing to attend. Irish people set great store in paying their respects and showing up at funerals to support their friends in time of loss. And getting time off work can be tricky, to say the least.

‘It’s fascinating how in Irish business life, employers have proved inclusive and flexible about staff taking off to attend funerals – even in Dublin’s rapidly changing work-force, where the multi-national corporations are so prevalent, you would imagine that there would be a culture clash about attitudes to funeral attendance.’

But as a busy Dublin Funeral Director, David hears regular accounts of how people manage to negotiate all this; show up without upsetting their work-place schedule. ‘I came across an IT worker called Frank last week from one of the blue-chip international firms. I remember him because, sadly, this was Frank’s second time here at Jennings in the same month – attending two funerals in the same month – in both cases, it was the parent of a friend who had passed away.’ Frank had told David at Jennings that despite huge work demands, the employer’s policy was flexible – as soon as Frank read the death notices, he was able to request time off, pay his respects, without funeral attendance being buried in a shroud of negative angst from his employer. He could work through lunch, or come back to the office after hours if need be, to make up the time.

The Funeral Director from Jennings compared this to his experience of working in an UK Undertakers as a young trainee Funeral Director. In the UK, there was generally a strict guideline in policy. Time off for funeral services was limited to immediate family only. This caused unnecessary grief for close friends and even relatives who could now only send sympathy cards or funeral flowers in lieu of the more meaningful personal connection.

Jennings Head Office at the Five Lamps in Dublin is full of the spirit of Dublin Funeral tradition. And these days, it sits comfortably flanked by it’s new financial service neighbours up at Dublin’s IFSC. The old and the new blend relatively well enough, in funeral terms anyway.

‘Like a beautiful modern song at a traditional funeral mass. These international firms were a bit like the Vikings, wise enough not to just land in here up the river Liffey and try to impose their funeral customs.’   Funeral Director, David, describes how other parts of the developed world have a more sterile approach to death. Funerals abroad can have a rushed impersonal element. Irish funerals are changing, but Dubliners still retain a deeply spiritual, leisurely and timely attitude to Irish funerals, wakes, and removals.

Like a truly professional Funeral Director, a good employer knows when it’s appropriate to allow an Irish funeral procession to take its’ timely and respectful course along Dublin’s historical streets.

During the North Strand bombings as outlined above, 300 local houses were destroyed or damaged, but the Five Lamps survived. And despite changing times, Dubliners keep custom close to home, funerals are deeply important in the national psyche, and Irish people stay true to the need for a strong Irish funeral tradition. Dubliners know that services provided by undertakers like Jennings Funeral Directors, brings some form of light to the bereaved in the community, not unlike the enduring light of the Five Lamps itself.