Cremation in Ireland
Cremation has been carried out as part of funeral rites in the Republic of Ireland since 1982, when the country's first crematorium, Glasnevin Crematorium, was opened. However, cremation in Ireland dates as far back as the Stone Age.
History
The earliest cremations in Ireland were carried out by the Stone Age people between 7000 and 2000 BC. Cremated remains were placed in stone structures such as passage tombs as well as small stone basins, which are thought to have served as resting places for the deceased. In pagan Ireland, ashes and bone fragments were deposited in an ornamented urn, generally made of baked clay, but sometimes of stone instead. Cremation was extensively practised in pagan Ireland. Urns containing ashes and burnt bones have been found in graves in every part of the country. The introduction of Christianity to Ireland in 432 AD caused burial to become the norm as Christian rites sanctioned and continued burial while replacing the old pagan ways. Cremation and burial were practised simultaneously, complete skeletons have been found along with urns containing ashes and burnt bones in the same grave. Cremation was a troublesome and expensive process, and could not have been practised by underprivileged people, who most likely buried the body as it was.Newgrange in County Meath is the most famous example of a passage tomb in Ireland. It is thought that the remains might have been placed in stone basins in Newgrange as a sort of religious ceremony. Some historians assume that when the sun shines into Newgrange on the Winter Solstice, it represents the souls of the departed being transported into the next life by the sunlight.
When the Cremation Act was passed in the United Kingdom in 1902, it did not extend to Ireland, which was still part of the United Kingdom at the time.