Danny Morning has been running a funeral supply business, Morning Grave Products, in Listillion, Co Donegal for over 30 years.
He has recently announced the launch of condolence.ie – a free death notice site for funeral directors all over Ireland.
The move comes as RIP.ie announced fee for publishing death notices following its sale to the Irish Times Group earlier this year.
From January 1, 2025 funeral directors have to pay €100 per death notice published on the site, while the site will remain free for visitors to access and express condolences.
Mr Morning explained he was approached about the foundation of a new website by funeral directors throughout the country and he agreed as he thought the €100 fee would be an extra expense for grieving families.
“When the Irish Times took over RIP.ie, a lot of funeral directors did think there would be a charge on the service but they did not expect it to be €100 plus VAT, which is €123.
“Funeral directors are not VAT registered so they cannot claim any VAT back so it is an extra expense that will have to be passed on to the families.
“This was not something we intended to do but some of the funeral directors, who we have built up a good rapport with over the past 30 years, approached me and asked if I would do the website.
“I did think it was a lot of extra expense for families and occasionally we deal with families ourselves who are looking for different things for graves and I know how hard it can be for them to pay for funerals.
“It is a bill that everyone wants to pay but sometimes it can be hard for some families to have the money at the time,” said Mr Morning.The website is set to be launched next week and Mr Morning said it will be basic at the start.
“It will take a month or two to get all the details on it but it will be functional from next week.
“We have the name – condolence.ie and it will cover the whole country.
“It will take us a while to get things ironed out but it will be set up for death notices and condolences next week and we will work at it to get it as good as we possibly can,” said Mr Morning.
The new website was announced last week on a social media post and Mr Morning said it received a brilliant response from both funeral directors and the public.
In regards covering the costs of the new website, Mr Morning explained due to the nature of his existing business, he will be able to run the site without incurring any major additional costs.
“We have another website that we have been using for a number of years. We do work with photographs for funeral directors and they put up a lot of similar information on this site, so it is only a matter of switching the information over.
“Once the site is up and running, it will not be an extra expense to us so we do not have to charge for it and we won’t be charging for it.
“We supply around 90% of the funeral directors and they have been very good to us and we don’t need to charge.
“If you are standing in front of a grieving family, you will try and make things a bit easier for them in any way possible.
“It probably will help our business eventually but there is no guarantee of that either,” said Mr Morning.
RIP.ie was founded in 2005 by siblings Jay and Dympna Coleman. Mr Morning said he attended the launch of the website and has known Ms Coleman for many years.
“I knew the founder, Dympna Coleman, really well and she done a brilliant job and she is such a lovely human being.
“I was there when she launched the website in Cork at a funeral association meeting and she ran it very successfully.
“I don’t know what the fee was to purchase it and I am sure it was a lot of money but that is what is trying to be recouped with the new charge.
“I am sure RIP.ie will continue to exist but this is an alternative for undertakers to offer families,” said Mr Morning.
Earlier this year, RIP.ie confirmed it would introduce the new fee for funeral directors to list death notices on the site from January 2025.
The website said the fee will be introduced for the development and enhancement of the service it offers.
“Investing in our service will ensure that RIP.ie remains a trusted resource for bereaved families across Ireland and for the hundreds of thousands of people who post messages of condolence to bereaved families on the site every week.
“Having engaged with funeral directors and others involved in the sector, we believe the new fee structure offers fair and good value for money. We have no plans to introduce a charge to users,” the platform said.