Madam, - Dean MacCarthy (April 17th) is quite wrong to suggest that a drawn-out funeral practice suits only funeral directors.
The duration of this process is determined by several factors.
1. The time required to correctly report death in Ireland has increased for several reasons. Night-time, weekend and bank holiday GP services are provided by bureau doctors who cannot sign the death notification form. All residential and nursing home deaths must be reported to the coroner (since the Harold Shipman case).
2. Public hospital mortuary services are, in the main, curtailed at weekends and release of the body is delayed.
3. It is now much more common for relatives to have to return from overseas to attend a funeral.
4. There are fewer clergy available to conduct funerals (perhaps not a problem for the Dean).
All this, on average, adds extra time to the process and increases the need for professional, modern embalming skills.
Incidentally, I would wonder how many of your readers have ever said to themselves, "I had no idea he had passed away, the funeral was over before I even knew", or words to that effect. - Yours, etc,
GUS NICHOLS, PRO, Irish Association of Funeral Directors, Lombard Street East, Dublin 2.