Grave Digging

Joeseph Balls · 05-12-2018 9:20am

Still done in my area by friends and neighbours. Sometimes one of the family members will come down for a chat.
Maybe just a country thing nowadays?
When I go in a few years I'd like to think my friends will dig mine, tell a few stories and have a bit of a laugh

Candlemass · 05-12-2018 9:21am

Never dug a grave but i did dig a huge bamboo plant up for the folks last weekend which the roots went on for miles in the depths of the earths core (it felt) and my fairy soft hands are still blistered

_Brian · 05-12-2018 10:06am

Decent money for it.

I know a couple of lads digging graves, €350 a grave, €400 if it’s particularly hard.

Two work along with busy local undertaker and could 4-6 a week depending on how brisk business is. Plus neighbors of the deceased often come to help which lightens the workload. I’ve seen maybe 6 lads helping yet they still get paid.

Tighter older rural graveyards need to be dug by hand.

BrokenArrows · 05-12-2018 10:14am

Archeron wrote: »

Dug a grave for a dog and accidentally killed two fish while doing it. That was not a nice morning.

How could you accidentally kill two fish while digging a grave?

BrokenArrows · 05-12-2018 10:18am

byronbay2 wrote: »

I was the official grave-digger for Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard, USA for about 2 months in the summer of 1989. There was absolutely no mechanical equipment allowed in the cemetery so the graves had to be dug by shovel. Luckily, MV is a small island so everywhere was mostly sand and it was an easy 2-hour dig for a six-foot deep grave. Got $50 cash for each hole plus (usually) a decent tip from the bereaved family.

Best job I ever had; only problem was people were not dying regularly enough on the island (only dug 6 graves in 2 months!) and I had to do less appealing jobs (painting, carpentry etc.) to make a living. Never had to do it in the winter, mind, which may have been a tougher proposition.

I was also the official vermin controller of the area, which mainly consisted of trapping and drowning raccoons and skunks. Another wonderful job which paid well but not regularly enough. Happy times!

That's when you need to become the official town serial killer. Increase the body count a bit.

razorblunt · 05-12-2018 10:32am

Yes, it's not a job I'm good at but something I fell into.

BrokenArrows · 05-12-2018 11:23am

razorblunt wrote: »

Yes, it's not a job I'm good at but something I feel into.

I assume you mean "fell into".

razorblunt · 05-12-2018 11:58am

BrokenArrows wrote: »

I assume you mean "fell into".

Ah, yes!
I've let myself down...

DEFTLEFTHAND · 05-12-2018 12:06pm

judeboy101 wrote: »

Bad luck? Where'd you hear that?

Never heard that it was bad luck but if the plot has had previous burials there's a chance that they could be stumbled open when digging a new grave.

There's some fierce stories in my town of this type of thing happening. I think something like that would tramatise me beyond belief.

Hurrache · 05-12-2018 12:07pm

blinding wrote: »

Get the guy to dig the grave before ya kill him . They are very keen to dig it very deep ! ! !

After, like others in the thread, digging one for a dog, I've decided that if I'm ever in the situation like the movie cliche, I'll just say **** it, shoot me, I'm not digging a hole big enough for a human.

Esel · 05-12-2018 12:15pm

At my grandmother's funeral in a very old graveyard, there were at least 4 skulls and many bones visible on the soil heap dug from the grave. My mother and her sister were trying to identify their relations from the skulls, not a bother on them.

Agricola · 05-12-2018 1:36pm

Esel wrote: »

At my grandmother's funeral in a very old graveyard, there were at least 4 skulls and many bones visible on the soil heap dug from the grave. My mother and her sister were trying to identify their relations from the skulls, not a bother on them.

That never dawned on me until my uncle's funeral about 15 years ago. Went to inspect the grave digging with my Dad and asked him what the bag was on top of the pile of soil. Bag of bones.

A lot to be said for cremation imo.

Fordcspri23 · 05-12-2018 7:13pm

JustJoe7240 wrote: »

You can't put both the blade and the track motors behind you

The ones we had in FAS had.

The Tetrarch · 05-12-2018 7:20pm

Candlemass wrote: »

Never dug a grave but i did dig a huge bamboo plant up for the folks last weekend which the roots went on for miles in the depths of the earths core (it felt) and my fairy soft hands are still blistered

The sort of thankless task where you are asked "what kept ya?".

Trigger Happy · 05-12-2018 7:24pm

How long does it take a coffin to decompose?
Don’t like the thought of my family’s bones on view at the next burial.

Muahahaha · 05-12-2018 7:47pm

MarkR wrote: »

Supposed to dig down four feet for animals. Sod that.

Years back we buried a dog in the garden, not sure how deep it was but not more than 2 feet. Three months later our new dog sniffed the bones and went and dug the whole grave up. Was pretty disgusting to see the entire rib cage with flies buzzing around it.

Galwayguy35 · 05-12-2018 7:51pm

Trigger Happy wrote: »

How long does it take a coffin to decompose?
Don’t like the thought of my family’s bones on view at the next burial.

The gravediggers always make sure you won't see any of that.

Galwayguy35 · 05-12-2018 7:58pm

Still a tradition around here where the neighbours would dig the grave although some of the lads are getting on now and it's getting a bit harder to find help among the younger generation.

A relative of the deceased used to call to the graveyard with a bottle of whiskey and on the day of the burial the family would organise a bit of food for the lads closing the grave.

Stovepipe · 05-12-2018 8:36pm

Find yourself a few soldiers and/or council workers; they will have dug trenches in their basic training, unless modern soldiers don't dig them anymore. I certainly did in the 80s.

Melodeon · 05-12-2018 8:55pm

Galwayguy35 wrote: »

The gravediggers always make sure you won't see any of that.

Yep, skeletal remains, item of clothing, coffin timbers and fittings, and anything else remotely 'artificial' encountered are usually discreetly hidden from view and reburied as the grave is filled later, or buried before the ceremony under the floor of the new grave.

The Hollywood version of digging a grave with bare hands or a bit of a stick is beyond laughable.

malinheader · 05-12-2018 8:56pm

Tatum Long Switch wrote: »

I have helped dig 5 or 6 graves for family members and friends. It seems to be all done by machine nowadays but at one time the family and community came together and three or four men would dig the grave. It was exceptionally hard work in some locations. Always followed by a good few drinks in the nearest bar with reminiscing about the deceased

Still done where im from too.

Schwiiing · 05-12-2018 9:21pm

Easy pick out the soft city office boys who struggle to dig a hole to bury a dog.

Melodeon · 05-12-2018 9:26pm

It's one of the essential country skills: 'How to successfully dispose of a corpse'

foxy farmer · 05-12-2018 9:26pm

Melodeon wrote: »

Yep, skeletal remains, item of clothing, coffin timbers and fittings, and anything else remotely 'artificial' encountered are usually discreetly hidden from view and reburied as the grave is filled later, or buried before the ceremony under the floor of the new grave.

The Hollywood version of digging a grave with bare hands or a bit of a stick is beyond laughable.

I always laugh where you see them breaking out the shovels and the ground is pure sand. You wouldn't go far digging a grave in Ireland without a pickaxe and a crowbar. A shovel on its own would be pointless.

Melodeon · 05-12-2018 9:27pm

foxy farmer wrote: »

I always laugh where you see them breaking out the shovels and the ground is pure sand. You wouldn't go far digging a grave in Ireland without a pickaxe and a crowbar. A shovel on its own would be pointless.

And it's usually a square-ended pan shovel too! :rolleyes:

feartuath · 05-12-2018 10:12pm

judeboy101 wrote: »

Bad luck? Where'd you hear that?

That is what is said down here.

ablelocks · 05-12-2018 10:54pm

feartuath wrote: »

Around here it is all done by local neighbours
I have dug several of them, ....

Lucozade and water have replaced the bottle of whiskey due to drink driving.

same here. except for the whiskey. the wimmin bring food and whiskey towards the end of the dig and wait for d'men to finish and bring us home. or more usually to the pub. (Or Joe drives, but he'd only have had 2-3 whiskies.)

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 05-12-2018 11:04pm

MarkR wrote: »

Supposed to dig down four feet for animals. Sod that.

Better for it to be a shallow grave. Past a foot or two down, the nutrients go to waste. No critters farther down.

There’s a shallow burial cemetery somewhere in Ireland for people who want their corpse to nourish the earth.

Obvious Desperate Breakfasts · 05-12-2018 11:12pm

My childhood parish, which was very rural, had a few gravediggers by profession. I can’t say for sure that they dug ALL the graves. Maybe the friends and family of some deceased dug the graves in some cases. But any of funeral I attended there, the professional gravediggers had dug the grave. (You’d see them standing by with their shovels) That some graves were and are dug by family, friends and neighbours is totally new information to me. And it’s not like old traditions have completely gone. Wakes are still quite common but I’ve never heard of any other than gravediggers doing the job.

For such a small country, Ireland is so diverse in its traditions!

Wildly Boaring · 05-12-2018 11:12pm

foxy farmer wrote: »

I always laugh where you see them breaking out the shovels and the ground is pure sand. You wouldn't go far digging a grave in Ireland without a pickaxe and a crowbar. A shovel on its own would be pointless.

One grave down near Slane we had to get a consaw out down the bottom and cut a substantial rock we ran into. Hardest grave I've dug. Real tight ground with cobbles all way down.

There are lots of places still hand digging graves. But anyone seen a place with a crypt??

My great uncle went into a crypt in west Kerry about 7 or 8 years ago. Two second cousins of mine went in before and had to move bones out of way to get the coffin in. Doorway then closed up. He'll be last into it apparently. Last of that generation.

Grave Digging

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