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Cremation or Burial?

Andy From Sligo

Cremation or Burial - what would you opt for?

I personally want to be cremated, I dont want to be worm fodder when I pop me clogs.

But the mrs tells me good luck with that, you can pay because its supposed to be expensive and i think only Dublin & Galway offer cremation

Just reading the other week that a Sligo cemetery is running out of space for plots or will be soon and will need expanding... taking up more land.

Land is valuable, shouldn't it be for building on rather than burying people in it?

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death

funeral

dying

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cremation

Comments

Andy From Sligo

topmanamillion wrote: »

Please don't bury me
Down in that cold cold ground
No, I'd druther have "em" cut me up
And pass me all around
Throw my brain in a hurricane
And the blind can have my eyes
And the deaf can take both of my ears
If they don't mind the size
Give my stomach to Milwaukee
If they run out of beer
Put my socks in a cedar box
Just get "em" out of here
Venus de Milo can have my arms
Look out! I've got your nose
Sell my heart to the junkman
And give my love to Rose

Give my feet to the footloose
Careless, fancy free
Give my knees to the needy
Don't pull that stuff on me
Hand me down my walking cane
It's a sin to tell a lie
Send my mouth way down south
And kiss my ass goodbye

always have loved that Pam Ayres poem ....

Wibbs

storker wrote: »

Cremation for me. I have a terrible fear of being buried alive.

Pretty much impossible nowadays. What with moe and more dying in hospital under the full view of medical science, followed by embalming and often enough an autopsy. It could certainly happen in the old days and may still happen in very rare occasions today in other cultures. Cultures who may not have good medical services and who bury people very soon after apparent death. A deep coma might be easily mistaken for death.

Andy From Sligo

learn_more wrote: »

...That couldn't possible be true I think your having us on , haha.

maybe wiki of the pedia may back me up on it

Andy From Sligo

hairyslug wrote: »

Both my parents were cremated last year and this may sound petty but having to buy 2 coffins for them to be burned didn't sit right with me.

There are options in the UK to rent a coffin for the ceremony. You can even rent your burial ploy for 60 years over there, after that, youre taken out and someone else moves in.

blimey! - it seems really anything is possible these days! -

Andy From Sligo

Ragnar Lothbrok wrote: »

I recently signed up to donate my body to UCC for scientific research. I've never believed in an afterlife, and I pretty much don't care what happens to my body after I die - it's just a lump of meat. It's nice to think it might be of some benefit to others though.

When my kids were in their teens, I'd tell them "feed me to the cat or put me in a black bin bag with the rest of the waste when I die".

After the scientists in UCC have no more use for me, I'll be cremated. Whatever happens to the ashes will be left up to my children.

yep - its time people wishes became listened to instead of doing things to the norm, or doing it because its the done thing or to please others i totally agree. Its our bodies at the end of the day, if we want to we should indeed be buried up the back of the garden or cut up into manageable size pieces and put in the solid fuel super stanley central heating system if we like - at least be fekin useful by keeping rads warm instead of worm fodder and compost at a graveyard

Andy From Sligo

Winterlong wrote: »

Bury me ...but I dont want my grave to become a shrine for my fans.

saw one of the lowest of the low news stories the other day , in Edinburgh a guy defecated on a gravestone! - thats made my mind up, i'm defo being cremmed , I dont want some low life sh1tting on me grave or worse!...

J. Marston

Frank Reynolds said it best; "When I'm dead, just throw me in the trash."

getzls

9or10 wrote: »

Just hate the thought of a load unwashed hairy students mucking about with me dangly bits. Probably playing marbles with me nuts.

So the bbq is probably best.

That's what you usually do anyway.
Cremate me.
Perferbly after I'm dead.

dudara

I genuinely don't care. I'll be dead, and that's the end of it.

On a practical level, I prefer the idea of cremation or donation to science.

Andy From Sligo

Very practical, you imagine how much space in Ireland is given up to graveyards. It's more important to have housing for the living!

RobertKK

Presuming I have no infectious disease, I want to be fed to the hungry.

Seriously, I want to be buried in the family plot.

Andy From Sligo

I wonder, when your buried in the ground and you start decomposing and the fluids start seeping out into the ground does that go into the water table and then into the fresh water that comes out of your dink tap? Is that what happens?

_Brian

Wibbs wrote: »

Pretty much impossible nowadays. What with moe and more dying in hospital under the full view of medical science, followed by embalming and often enough an autopsy. It could certainly happen in the old days and may still happen in very rare occasions today in other cultures. Cultures who may not have good medical services and who bury people very soon after apparent death. A deep coma might be easily mistaken for death.

Funny story..
Uncle of my wife used to say that if it was any way possible he'd come back. He would seriously talk about it and say he couldn't understand that if there was an afterlife why he couldn't come back with some sort of a message or sign, I heard him say this rather than hear say...

Roll on the sorta sad day and he died and was buried in the plot chosen by his wife, he was maybe 85 so it wasn't awfully sad and expected..

Interesting thing and true to his word he was kind back again 5 days later. It turned out the plot was already sold and the first family really wanted it and we had to have him exhumed at dawn, council staff, grave diggers, undertaker, family member, garda and the priest all saw him again (briefly).. :eek:

topmanamillion

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

always have loved that Pam Ayres poem ....

As far as I'm aware it's a John Prine song.

Alun

There's another technique which involves freeze drying the body instead of cremating it. More environmentally friendly, and it preserves all the 'nutrients' so when you're ground up to a powder, it makes great fertilizer e.g. for a tree to act as a memorial. It's available in Sweden ...

http://www.promessa.se/

FizzleSticks

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Andy From Sligo

FizzleSticks wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

your right really, if someone passes and they have some useful good working organs that will help someone else live, or live a better life it seems such a waste to let them rot in the ground -

Rubberlegs

I know when you are dead , you are dead but cremation to me is one step too far, too final. The whole idea of ashes is completely gross to me, scattering them, keeping them on the mantelpiece, just bleurrrrghh! I want to be thoroughly enbalmed, and buried in my Converse with a good book, a fabulous headstone and rose bushes planted on my grave. One of my childen is insisting I'm going to be cremated but I swear I will haunt her till the end of her days if that comes to pass

buried

Buried at sea. I always liked a good bath.

learn_more

Andy From Sligo wrote: »

saw one of the lowest of the low news stories the other day , in Edinburgh a guy defecated on a gravestone! - thats made my mind up, i'm defo being cremmed , I dont want some low life sh1tting on me grave or worse!...

Maybe it was someone he didn't particularly like.

FizzleSticks wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

The thing about doing it for the family who would want a funeral, fine. But that does not mean they want a catholic funeral. They prolly want a ceremony of some kind, not necessity a religious one.

A friend of mine who died of cancer in her late 60's recently, who lived in a family home of sorts, not genetically related, was cremated , and they had a gathering in the house where she lived afterwards. I couldn't attend but I though that was quite fine overall I though.

Working class heroes

Has anyone here ever heard of the cartoonist Terry Willers?
Well, engraved on his headstone is the line "I told them I was sick". That's the way I want to go, buried deep with something up above to make 'em laugh.

Widdershins

Planted. In a pod, so I can feed a tree. Otherwise a willow coffin'd do fine.

topmanamillion

73Cat wrote: »

I know when you are dead , you are dead but cremation to me is one step too far, too final. The whole idea of ashes is completely gross to me, scattering them, keeping them on the mantelpiece, just bleurrrrghh! I want to be thoroughly enbalmed, and buried in my Converse with a good book, a fabulous headstone and rose bushes planted on my grave. One of my childen is insisting I'm going to be cremated but I swear I will haunt her till the end of her days if that comes to pass

Embalming should be outlawed.
If you think ashes are "blueurrrrgh" as you say have a think about embalming.

1. We're pumping this toxic embalming fluid by the truckload into the ground along with pretty treated timber and brass handled boxes. Not good for local water supplies and the environment in general.

2. When you're dead you're dead. Why do people want the dead to look alive? That's the creepy and ( to borrow your word again) blueurrrrgh part for me.

We should let our dead look dead, because they are. Sprucing them up with make up and toxic chemicals is mental.
It's like a perverse Vogue magazine article "Don't be caught looking dead when you're dead".

I believe doing it naturally would actually help with the grieving process and allow people to deal with the finality of death from an early stage.

Ave Sodalis

Widdershins wrote:

Planted. In a pod, so I can feed a tree. Otherwise a willow coffin'd do fine.

I seen them too and would genuinely love this! Once they've taken whatever they need from me to save other people since I'm not gonna need it.

Rubberlegs

topmanamillion wrote: »

Embalming should be outlawed.
If you think ashes are "blueurrrrgh" as you say have a think about embalming.

1. We're pumping this toxic embalming fluid by the truckload into the ground along with pretty treated timber and brass handled boxes. Not good for local water supplies and the environment in general.

2. When you're dead you're dead. Why do people want the dead to look alive? That's the creepy and ( to borrow your word again) blueurrrrgh part for me.

We should let our dead look dead, because they are. Sprucing them up with make up and toxic chemicals is mental.
It's like a perverse Vogue magazine article "Don't be caught looking dead when you're dead".

I believe doing it naturally would actually help with the grieving process and allow people to deal with the finality of death from an early stage.

From my own experience my Dad looked terrible in his last few days, and equally so immediately after his death. He looked better and more like himself after being embalmed, not overly made up either. To be honest it was a comfort, I don't think I could have handled his wake if he looked terrible laid out. The lasting image I have of him is him looking good, just like he was asleep. I'd like to look good too, don't want to be freaking anyone out and leaving them with a lasting image of me looking desperate:)

Alun

Working class heroes wrote: »

Has anyone here ever heard of the cartoonist Terry Willers?
Well, engraved on his headstone is the line "I told them I was sick". That's the way I want to go, buried deep with something up above to make 'em laugh.

Wasn't that Spike Milligan?

getzls

Working class heroes wrote: »

Has anyone here ever heard of the cartoonist Terry Willers?
Well, engraved on his headstone is the line "I told them I was sick". That's the way I want to go, buried deep with something up above to make 'em laugh.

There's a headstone in Clifton Street cemetery in Belfast.
It says Young moulders here.

Working class heroes

@alun. You could be right. But it's definitely on Terry Willers as well. Maybe Spike Milligan was the inspiration.

railer201

There was a documentary programme on rte years back by Donncha O'Dulaing about this guy who was interred in a pyramid shaped vault above ground. He is sitting up at a table inside with a bottle of port (or something). Does anyone know where this vault is ? I vaguely remember it as being midlands ???

topmanamillion

73Cat wrote: »

From my own experience my Dad looked terrible in his last few days, and equally so immediately after his death. He looked better and more like himself after being embalmed, not overly made up either. To be honest it was a comfort, I don't think I could have handled his wake if he looked terrible laid out. The lasting image I have of him is him looking good, just like he was asleep. I'd like to look good too, don't want to be freaking anyone out and leaving them with a lasting image of me looking desperate:)

Firstly sorry to hear about your father.

I think we'll just have to disagree.

The way people deal with death is a very cultural thing.
I see nothing wrong with a dead person looking dead.

There are mountain tribes where it's impossible to dig a hole so burial isn't an option.
They use sky burials. Essentially the recently dead person is left on a mountain and vultures eat them.
Theres a lot of myth around it that it helps bring the dead to heaven.
It was born out of necessity as I said digging a grave is impossible in the terrain and they need to get rid of the body quickly so as not to attract predators or disease.

Now that's possibly shocking to us.
But imagine explaining burial to one of those tribe members?

Cremation isn't very big here because it didn't sit well with the heavily Catholic population.
We're slowly moving away from that.
There's a few reasons for this such as the country is less devoutly catholic now and more open to new ideas.
There's also the issue of cost. The average cost of a new grave in Dublin is about €5,000.

As land gets more scarce in Dublin and around the country cremation will inevitably become more popular.