In England, a recent study found location requests received by funeral directors for services have included Hampton Court Palace, a betting shop, a castle, a farm, in woods, on a London bus, at an angling club, and in a cricket pavilion.
In Ireland, the director of pre-planning funeral service My Farewell Wishes, Colm Kieran, believes the shift in the generations reaching mortality is behind the biggest changes to Irish funeral ceremonies
“As it shifts down to the baby boomers, it’s causing a big change in people’s expectations in every sector, not just funerals,” said the Monaghan funeral director.
“You have to remember these people broke the social norms. They still would have been brought up in a very traditional background but were much more open to different ways of doing things.“
He said the first break away from tradition over the past decade or so has been cremations. “Probably 30pc to 40pc of cremations that take place might have no religious ceremony whatsoever.”
Over the last few years, he said non-religious funerals have been held in crematoriums, funeral homes, and locations like hotels and family homes.
Mr Kieran added: “You get ceremonies that take place in locations of significance to a person like an outdoor venue like a forest park although in Ireland we’re very weather dependent.
“Ceremonies have taken place in locations like GAA clubs and rugby clubs, places where people felt their sense of community was tied into these areas as opposed to church.”
They still want to have the funeral at the church, but don’t necessarily want the coffin there overnight
John-Mark Griffin, spokesperson for the Irish Association of Funeral Directors, has seen a marked change since the pandemic.
“People might have felt in the past that traditional funerals must happen, whereas Covid opened that up,” said the managing director of Griffin Funerals in Limerick.
In the past, he said, around 5pc of funerals would have been non-religious but it is now around 10pc to 15pc.
He said they take place in facilities provided by funeral directors or in crematorium chapels but also in local halls and community centres and outdoor venues.
Along with non-religious services, Mr Griffin said people are now also adding more personal touches to religious services.
“They still want to have the funeral at the church, but don’t necessarily want the coffin there overnight.”
He said some mourners now prefer the idea of having their loved one in their house the night before the burial. He said the non-religious services often follow a similar format to church services.
“If you take the religious aspect out of it, a lot of the frameworks and pillars are the same. They’re just not around Catholicism or Church of Ireland, they’re around the life of someone or something nice in culture or history or something they’ve done in their own life that they’d like to reflect back to,” he said.
“I’ve had a situation in the crematorium where the family have played a video of the person talking at their own funeral, which was unusual, but very personal.
“People want the personal touch, people want to be in control of what happens, and they want it to be about the person that’s passed away.”
Colm Kieran anticipates videos will become part of the services in the future as younger generations record so much of their lives on phones.
“Personalisation is very important,” he said. “People live a unique life.”
The big change coming down the tracks, which is out of our control, is the availability of clergy to facilitate religious ceremonies
He also said funeral directors take a greater role in helping to organise the newer non-religious ceremonies.
“A lot of funeral directors would host a ceremony like that if they are comfortable. A lot of crematoria would have celebrants themselves and there is also a large network of celebrants around the country who facilitate these types of events,” Mr Kieran added.
Mr Kieran founded the new pre-planning funeral service called My Farewell Wishes in the wake of Brexit as the UK-based services previously offering pre-planning services were no longer viable in the Republic of Ireland.
“In Ireland, about 5pc to 10pc at most would be pre-planned. In the UK, it makes up 20pc to 30pc, and in countries like the Netherlands, it could be up to 60pc,” he said.
“We’re great at funerals in Ireland but not great at talking about what our own plans are.”
He said people can pre-pay for funerals with their service, but they can also just pay a fee to register their wishes for their funerals.
“The UK model is about coming up with a price and selling plans, but we want to make sure people make their wishes known first, and we provide a certificate for everyone who registers their wishes, and we can share them with family members,” he said. “Pre-planning has existed since Newgrange. We’re trying to find ways to help people have that conversation.
“Sometimes people get caught in tradition and what’s always done. There are so many different options,” Mr Kieran said, adding that people often don’t realise they can still be buried with a loved one in the family plot if they are cremated.
In the future, he foresees more changes to funeral culture as religious services may take longer than the customary four or five days to organise.
“What will change over the next 10 or 15 years is the locations, the venues, the celebrants,” Mr Kieran said.
“The big change coming down the tracks, which is out of our control, is the availability of clergy to facilitate religious ceremonies,” he said.
Whether it’s pre-planned or not, Mr Griffin said funerals are very individual.
“There is no one funeral the same. Culturally an Irish funeral is a very important way of marking someone’s life,” he said. “It’s a huge respect to the person who has passed away and to the family, and an offering of support to their families.”