A Jennings Funeral Director knows that whether it’s Dublin or Dunshaughlin, no two funerals are exactly alike.

A Jennings Funeral Director shares two small stories of how people avail of different facilities in a Jennings Funeral Home.

Funerals have always mattered deeply to those in the wake of loss and trauma. In Ireland, over many decades, funeral patterns take different shapes and changes over time.

It’s a bit like how death itself is so deeply chaotic yet funeral tributes tend to shape themselves into events that are quiet and full of dignity. Of course this is partly because the professional Funeral Director will be quietly at work in the background, sensing the family’s needs, ensuring those needs are met, but managing it all without being intrusive.  But it’s also a testament to a deeply caring human impulse. As a Jennings Funeral Director, it never ceases to amaze me – we lose someone precious to us but still draw on just enough courage to enable us to make sure we bid a fitting and meaningful farewell.

Funeral options:
How the needs of different families in bereavement can vary:

A Funeral Home can have many different uses. In Jennings we find that for one family, it might be fairly simple.  Other grieving people may need us in a more detailed way – and that’s fine – flexibility is absolutely key to the funeral service provided by Jennings. Here are two recent examples:

A Jennings Funeral in Clontarf:

A family from Clontarf came into Jennings Funeral Directors to arrange their father’s funeral.  Jim had worked in Dublin Castle all his working life as a public servant, enjoyed good years of retirement, and had passed away peacefully after a short illness in Beaumont Hospital. Originally from Cootehill in Cavan, Jim had reared his family in Clontarf.  When his wife Margaret had passed away some years before, it was the local Undertaker in Cavan had arranged the funeral because both parents had expressed a wish to be buried in their native home-place. But Jim had also an affinity to Jennings as he had personally arranged the funeral of his departed cousin in Jennings Funeral Directors of Raheny some years previously. And it suited the adult children to make the arrangements in Dublin with Jennings.   It all worked out very harmoniously – Jim was reposed at the family home in Clontarf – Jennings Funeral Directors moved him from Beaumont Hospital, had his remains professionally prepared, and after the Reposal, there was a Funeral Mass at St Anthony’s Church in Clontarf.  Then the Jennings Hearse and the mourning cars proceeded onto the M50 and towards the local church in Cootehill – there was another short service for local people followed by the burial in the cemetery adjoining the church.  But before the M50, the funeral procession made a brief respectful detour past City Hall and Dublin Castle, where Jim had worked for 47 years.  So – from Castle Street to Cavan, Clontarf to Cootehill – all reflecting the well-lived life and locations of a marriage and a family and a strong sense of community.

From Clontarf to Castle Street, from Raheny to Cavan: No two funeral are alike, no detail too small, no distance too great.

A Jennings Funeral in Dublin City:

In the same week in Jennings Funeral Directors of Amiens Street at the Five Lamps, a local woman called Joan passed away peacefully in the very house in East Wall where three generations of her family had lived. Joan’s funeral took place all within a four-mile radius. The Reposal took place here at Jennings Funeral Director’s Five Lamps Reposal Chapel. The Funeral Mass was held at Laurence O’Toole Church, just up the street at Seville Place, North Wall – the very same church Joan had been christened in 1934.  After that, the furthest the funeral procession had to travel was under four miles (4.1 km – or 13 minutes – if you go by google maps, which gives that distance from Jennings Funeral Directors of Amiens Street to Glasnevin Cemetery).

Joan and Jim – different life paths – and yet so much in common.  Like Jim, Joan’s funeral reflected a life full of warm friendships and real connections. At both funerals, the churches were packed with people keen to pay respects and tributes. Music was played and memories were shared.

Names have been changed.

Whether your family funeral is arranged at our Five Lamps Amiens Street office and you need us to publish the funeral times, or whether you need Jennings Funeral Directors to move your beloved deceased relative from one part of Ireland to another, we remain at your service for all contingencies.