Digging a grave

A few villages do it around here. Our own parish has 2 grave diggers. If people want to help them dig it they have no problem. My uncle died 7 years ago and I gathered up the cousins and a couple of neighbours and we dug it. That started out family tradition. 6 family members have have died so we all know now to get ready to dig . My cousin's dug my brother's grave 3 years ago and my father's grave in October. It's tradition to drop down beer but no immediate family is allowed to dig. It's a lovely thing to do it's only a few hours(unless you come across a few boulders).

Is tradition here for some to dig the grave in north kildare alright. Tradition in my family to backfill it also. Not sure where it came from but wehave done it for every funeral i remember

Kinda dying out (excuse the pun) round these parts. Most dug by digger where possible.

reminds me. When my mam died earlier in the year I had to meet the grave diggers to confirm the grave. Local bachelors, one has land backing onto ours. Wee chat about mam dying and about how long my dad was dead. They asked which side of the grave was free and I honestly couldn’t remember. “No matter” he says “we’ll stick down a crowbar and find your auld fella” I laughed but my brother who was with me was horrified.

I shed tears today when I visited the family grave and shocked to see the grave had sunk about a foot. It's going to be difficult to top up with soil, it's an old graveyard with a narrow gate entrance. My late mother's words ringing in my ears, a collapsed grave is beckoning a funeral.

A wheel barrow and a handful of bags of soil will sort that easily line tree. Don't fret about the superstition.

Yes I was thinking wheelbarrow also after I had posted. It was just such a shock to see.

If I stop posting you'll know where I am.

Very common around here (Offaly) as said earlier. There would generally be a decent crowd of mainly local farmers along with a few family members. I’d help out on a regular enough basis and would have dug in about 6 different graveyards around here. 99% of them are filled in straight after the burial when family and all are still there and a lot of people would join in.

Birr is the only place I know of where the council are in charge of it and dig them all. I’ve no problem with that but they don’t allow family and friends to fill the grave which around here wouldn’t be accepted. I know my grandparents and father would have come back up again after us if they thought we hadn’t filled them in.

My own immediate family all know that whenever my time comes, no matter what the “rules” are in the graveyard at that time, they are to be there to see me being filled in.

It’s also amusing as well to watch some of the family members that turn up who are not from farming background and have no clue how to even hold a shovel! Especially the 20 or 30 something year old gym goers with all the pumped up muscles. Watching them wilt when faced with actual work makes the work worthwhile for us that’s used to being there!!

one funeral a week? Not sure what youre asking there

The strangest one I've seen, was a female Council gravedigger. Holding a shovel, dressed in a boiler suit, waiting for the people to disperse. She was part of team, but she drew attention.

It does happen on occasion. Depending on the depth you come on them there are a few different approaches.

If you meet remains in the first few feet and it’s a double grave or bigger it could be filled in and start again in a different position on the plot.

If you’re down 5 or 6 feet the remains would be collected, the grave would be dug 6 inches deeper than the required depth, the remains placed back in and covered over for the new coffin to be placed on top. Generally the priest would be asked to come to bless the disturbed remains also.

Have been at the digging of a good few graves, the first when I was a teen.

Was amazed at the ritual of it, have come across bones of deceased, reburied under the grave or at foot of the coffin. Recent years the grave of my grand father reopened for a family member, he was buried in 77 and casket was still almost perfect.

It was the deceased wish to be buried in the same grave, so it's not for the want of land but to try and respect all wishes.

We just lined the grave and covered the casket in palm so none of the close family would be upset.

Have been in a couple of tricky situations, always good to have a runner with a direct line to the undertakers, you never know when you might need to slow down a burial or speed one up, and this has to be done without the family knowing.

You can't let a family arrive to a subsided grave with the perhaps the coffin of a parent or sibling lying exposed in the next grave.

I have seen graves that were full, but not used in a few generations.

You'd have auld fella's guessing who they were by the length of the bones.

I think it shows respect and if asked must never refuse.

Have a local knowall that views all grave digging, was one which he was saying was never used when we happen on a replacement hip, sometimes it can be very funny too.

If anything the tradition is getting bigger around here in East Clare. The last few here, had more than enough lads. The tradition here is that the immediate family members, sons or brothers etc, don't dig or close the grave. The family will supply drink (beer and whiskey) and food. Local tradition dictates that the whiskey bottle shouldn't leave the graveyard. A good excuse to finish it off. 😀 The man is usually buried on the left as you face the headstone, wife on the right. This helps in future years deciding which side to bury next. A bit of rebar works too, as it can be easily pushed down on the previously dug side. I wish they would mark the headstone in some way to show which side the person is buried on. A simple dot left or right would do.

I must have dug 20 graves by now. i remember being the youngest years ago and now I'm fast becoming the oldest. It's a great tradition and I hope it continues. I asked a cousin's husband what he thought after he dug his first grave (my aunt's) and he said that he thought it very personal. Some of the older lads here put great care and pride into digging it neatly and will line the sides with laurels or even flowers for a child's.

I'm a few years on a digging team, with I supose up on 300 graves Dug at this stage.

On the nosey diggers, This would be years ago, from old neigbours digging, that you'd hear the stories, of them opening the lid and seeing the person as good as day one.

Lot of the families nowadays around here have no idea what plot of a grave and what depth they want a hole. It's us diggers that pick the depth in them cases, with the undertakers approval. Ground type, amount of family left to go into a plot, and depth of last coffin determine the depth of the new hole.

Really interesting thread.

mid agree it’s a very personal tribute to a person to do it. Pity it’s dying out around here. I think the closer to an urban area you are in the less likely it’s continuing

The tree would want to be kept at a small height. Between roots growing in the hole, make future digging torturesome, and big trees falling and pulling the the ground up with it.

Can be mini digger if people allow and there is room around the grave to work It. Otherwise, pick, spade, shovel, crowbar, sledge and trowel are the required tools.

Most old graves were only around 4 foot deep in the counties around here. 6 foot deep was not the norm in ireland. 2 people can have an average grave Dug in 6 hours, add lots more for rock tho.

Ground dictates the need for propping, but it would be propped over 50 percent of the time.

Yea I was at a funeral recently and was surprised to see it down at 8 ft. I always thought it was only 6ft

Must be nice soil that yous can be finished in 2 hours. It's not Leitrim or monaghan soils, that's for sure.

Correct he doesn’t, but he gets the information from whoever does decide and passes it on to the diggers.

As said above the decision is made by the family and is based on how many corpses are already in the plot and how many more are expected to go into it.

Around here, the younger generation know very little of where the ancestors are in a grave. It's usually us the grave diggers, that are told to dig where we think best.

I forgot the refreshments of course, that's the lunch box we bring with us. Though covid put an end to the hotel or parish hall food we'd get, fairly often, after we had the grave backfilled.

Must be a difference in areas alright, 4 foot has been the norm for any old bones, dating anywhere over the last 100 years, we may have took out, possibly due to hard-core and gutters that must be at the 4 odd foot level around here.