Attending a funeral via the web

WITH the internet now a part of just about every kind of family gathering, it’s perhaps inevitable that the technology would soon become part of the funeral.

 

With emigration now more prevalent in people’s lives, a Clare funeral director is offering to stream funerals online to grieving loved ones living overseas who cannot get home.

PJ Murphy of Murphy’s Funeral Home in Kilmaley explained the service is offered through a secure site, which can only be accessed by a password that changes for every funeral.

“If there is a family member who can’t be present because they are abroad, we can organise it in such a way that the family can communicate with them. So at least they can kind of feel as if they are in some way involved with the funeral. It just might help someone in the grieving process that they would feel in some way connected.

“We can actually stream the funeral to a foreign web address, all under a secure line and, of course, it would only be done at the request of the family. Logging on with the password, which changes every time, they can see the family. The camera won’t be at all focused on the coffin. But they would be able to see their family members and the people coming in to sympathise. It lets them feel a part of the whole thing, even though they are not actually there.”

The service was made possible after Murphy’s Funeral Home became one of 2,300 eircom WiFiHub hotspots around the country. As well as streaming the funeral, families can also speak to their mourning relatives abroad through Skype.

“We have the facility in the family room where a member of the family can go in and have a one-on-one conversation with somebody on the other side of the world,” explained PJ.

While nobody has used the services yet, PJ believes more and more people will take up the offer.

“It hasn’t been taken up on yet but I imagine it’s only a matter of time. I came across the idea through contacts in the trade. It’s only just gradually coming into Ireland now and it was suggested to me that I try it as we’re a new business. I’ve seen it first-hand and I’ve seen it work.

“Any funerals we have had up to date, all the family members have actually come home for them. But in this day and age, it mightn’t always be possible, either financially or for other reasons. There are young people who have gone abroad and aren’t making a fortune. For them a flight home from somewhere like Australia, particularly at short notice, they would be paying top dollar.

“There are local people with elderly relatives living abroad who cannot travel for health reasons. Those who emigrated long ago but who still have very close connections with family or with the parish itself. Because Kilmaley people never forget where they come from, no matter what part of the world they go to, they like to support each other,” he said.