Atheist refused burial in her home town because county has no facilities for non-religious burials

[Ian David]

No atheist burials in Co Donegal
A Donegal atheist had to be buried in Londonderry because the county has no facilities for non-religious burials.
Page last updated at 12:44 GMT, Friday, 29 August 2008 13:44 UK

Journalist Roy Greenslade's mother was buried in Ballyowen cemetery in Derry on Tuesday after a humanist service.

He said he was told atheists could not be buried in Donegal because the graveyards are church-owned.

"Therefore unless one is willing to compromise one's beliefs by agreeing to a religious service, it is impossible to be buried," he said.

"There is a degree of black comedy about this, and my mother, who had a fantastic sense of humour, would certainly have laughed.


Mr Greenslade's mother had to be buried in a cemetery in Derry

More:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/7588035.stm

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Has all the makings of a Monty Python movie...How utterly ridiculous.

[cosmik debris]

2. All the more reason to get toasted.

Now, and after death.

[moggie]

11. Provided it's carbon-neutral

Have some trees planted. And if you have any mercury fillings in your teeth, get them removed first: apparently, there have been concerns about heavy-metal emissions from crematoria.

[cosmik debris]

19. I'm strongly Pro-Carbon

And I want a Pro-Carbon cremation!

I won't be offended if Carbon Neutral friends come to morn, but I certainly don't want any Anti-Carbon people there.

[PassingFair]

3. I don't really know HOW to feel about this....

as an atheist, I plan on being
cremated. I would be pretty PISSED OFF,
though, if my family had a cool
plot and I was EXCLUDED from burial
there if it mattered to me.

(I, of course, mean PRE-death pissed off...)

[Ian David]

4. I've been toying with the idea of donating myself to "The Body Farm."

Body farm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A body farm is a research facility where human decomposition after death can be scientifically studied in a variety of settings. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the decomposition process, permitting the development of techniques for extracting information (such as the timing and circumstances of death) from human remains. Body farm research is particularly important within forensic anthropology and related disciplines, and has applications in the fields of law enforcement, medical examination and crime scene investigation. There are currently three such facilities in the United States with Texas State University being the largest of the three.

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_Farm

[PassingFair]

5. Diamonds are a dead girl's best friend....

http://www.lifegem.com/secondary/whatisLG2006.aspx

[moggie]

12. Sounds like a zombie infestation in the making

I'm surprised that there are still things to learn about decomposition. You'd think that the book would be pretty much written by now.

[Taverner]

6. I want my body to be donated to science - but only after my brain has expired

I want "eternal life"

This does not exist for real

But it does exist in the scientific sense that your mind lives on in a dreamlike state for a few minutes after you die. These minutes can seem like hours for you, so I really want to die with brain intact, and the body left to chill for a few minutes.

[Ian David]

7. What if you die at The Registry of Motor Vehicles? n/t

[Taverner]

8. At least the DMV has water now

[Silent3]

20. The first problem would be...

...how long it took for someone to realize you'd died.

[struggle4progress]

9. What is this story of any importance? If you believe that once you are dead, you are dead,

why should you care about the disposition of the carcass? Or, under the same hypothesis, if other people have strange burial customs that you find incomprehensible, why would you care if they would not bury your carcass in accordance with their customs? If you have no religious sentiments, then why should you be outraged that a religious society would not treat your remains as identical with the remains of members of that society?

I really just don't understand what you think the issue is here

[PassingFair]

14. Living atheists MIGHT care about their legasy.

If your family had a plot, you
might want your remains AND your
name to be included.

Get it?

[struggle4progress]

15. The link does not assert that the deceased had a family plot, nor does it assert that the deceased

regarded this as some manner of "legacy" issue (whatever that means -- and I must admit I myself have no idea what it means)

This seems like the usual noisy fake outrage, that is so common in this forum

[PassingFair]

16. This is what you said:

"If you believe that once you are dead, you are dead,

why should you care about the disposition of the carcass?"

I am telling you WHY one might care.


But you obviously have your mind already made
up as to how others feel.

:eyes:

[struggle4progress]

17. I'm simply having trouble making any sense of this story, since I can't see why it would matter

Your response suggests that you want to define one's "legacy" as a name on a stone, and you apparently think the real significance of that stone might vary according to its location

:shrug:

:hi:

[PassingFair]

18. Those left behind would want to see the family as a unit.

It seems petty to exclude a corpse, don't you think?

[struggle4progress]

22. Yawn

[moggie]

10. This is a little odd

So she had to cross the border! Donegal is in the Republic, Derry is in Northern Ireland.

Derry is not much better:

"When I rang up and asked Derry City Council's cemeteries department if it was possible to bury an atheist in a municipal cemetery they said it was possible because there were different sections for Catholics, Protestants and Muslims.

"My wife asked if it meant they were going to start an atheist section and the woman said, 'oh no, she can go in with the Protestants'."

Proddies are not real Christians, see.

I think a church should have the right to refuse permission for a ceremony of which it disapproves, if it would take place on church property. But it should not have a monopoly on burials. There should be municipal cemeteries which are open to all; failing that, the church should be required to accept burials where the ceremony has been conducted elsewhere.

Here on the UK mainland, around 70% of people are cremated, and there are plenty of municipal crematoria. Both my parents were cremated, with humanist ceremonies. We didn't follow dad's wish for his ashes to be poured through the local vicar's letter box, though.

[Nihil]

13. Thanks for that!

:spray:

Both at this bit:
> "My wife asked if it meant they were going to start an atheist section
> and the woman said, 'oh no, she can go in with the Protestants'."

(I can just hear this being said in a delightful Irish accent!)

and this one:
> We didn't follow dad's wish for his ashes to be poured through
> the local vicar's letter box, though.

:rofl:

That cheered up my lunchtime! :toast:

[struggle4progress]

21. Tail end of the Irish Times piece cut from the BBC link:

Atheists forced to travel out of Donegal for final resting place
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent

... A spokesman for the Church of Ireland diocese of Derry and Raphoe, which includes north Donegal, was mystified by the situation. Strictures on who could be buried in a Church of Ireland graveyard was news to him ... Dick Spicer of the Humanist Association of Ireland expressed amazement that there was a county in Ireland which did not have a municipal graveyard.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0829/1219875241992.html