The recession is now affecting the dead – Irish families can no longer afford lavish funerals as the downturn bites.
Undertakers in Ireland say the average paid for a funeral has dropped by 40 per cent in the last five years.
Expenditure on flowers, music and limousines has all dropped in the wake of the country’s economic woes.
At the height of the boom, the average Irish funeral cost a whopping $9,000 and as much as $15,000 was spent on lavish send-offs.
-------------------
READ MORE:
More news stories from Ireland on IrishCentral
US tourist says she captured image of Jesus on Cliffs of Moher
Irish American girl commits suicide in repeat of Phoebe Prince storyline
-------------------
Now the average is down to just over $5,000 with many families looking to the cheaper cremation option.
Funeral Director Keith Massey told the Irish Independent: “The spend on funerals is right down. I would say people are now spending $5,000 on average, compared to $9,000 just two years ago.
“In 2005 and 2006, it was pretty common for $15,000 to be spent on funerals. In those cases, families might have spent $2,500 on flowers alone, but that figure is now down to between $200 and $350.
“And back then, there were often four to five limousines hired. That now has been cut back to one or even none. And a lot more cheaper veneer coffins are being used than before.”
Massey also said that cremations, costing as little as $1,000, now account for almost 30 per cent of his business, up from just 10 per cent in 2002.
6 Comments
-
-
-
-
-
-
Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.mcdolan | Nov 17, 2011, 09:18 AM EST
I find justification for the cost of funerals in Ireland much lacking. Bodies are normally not embalmed, the coffin (as opposed to a casket as in the US) contains the body for one day for friends and relatives to pay their respects, and then is brought (closed) to the church ('the removal')for a short ceremony, then overnight in the church and burial the next day. There is no need for extravagance which surely only 'benefits' the living. Give me a plain pine box or a shroud even and into the ground. I won't know the difference!
ellenfromcork | Nov 15, 2011, 08:10 PM EST
It isn't the dead that are affected by the recession, it's the living.Perhaps now we can all have more sense than money instead of more money than sense.
mamaginnty | Nov 15, 2011, 04:01 PM EST
Havent met anyone yet who spent 9.000 on a funeral, and can't believe the 15.000 on a send off. The norm would be around 3.000 plus a few hundred on a meal for 25-50 people after. My ould lad says a cardboard box will do him, and I feel the same, the cheapest box going will do.
CitizenWhy | Nov 15, 2011, 10:48 AM EST
My parents from Ireland, where their families and neighbors buried the dead the next day in a shroud after sitting up with the deceased through the night, found "Irish" wakes disturbing when they cam to the US. They would never say anything about this to avoid hurting feelings. The Funeral Mass was said three days later, without the body. Their families could have afforded more, but out of religious belief kept funerals very simple.
biggles008 | Nov 15, 2011, 09:57 AM EST
The money spent on a funeral makes no difference to the dead person.
Springfield9 | Nov 15, 2011, 09:33 AM EST
And what is it that makes $15,000 better than a stout pine box and someone to send you off with a prayer?