Madam, - In relation to the concerns expressed in your paper by the Irish Association of Embalmers, I too am very concerned that traditional funeral customs in Ireland would be altered in any way by EU directives on the use of chemicals.
Having worked in the area of grief and bereavement for the past 25 years, I have seen time and again the value and importance to the bereaved of viewing the dead body. This custom has many functions, all of which are essential to adaptation in bereavement. Most important among these is the opportunity to spend time with the deceased, to bring home the reality of the death and most essential of all to begin the process of making sense of the loss.
In an increasingly frantic and busy world, this time after the death is precious to the bereaved. Even when injuries to the dead are such that the viewing of the body is not advisable, the bereaved leave a photograph on the coffin, to facilitate visual reminders of the deceased.
Every society has funeral rituals and customs. One of the traditional customs in Ireland was the wake, which has all but disappeared in many areas. Yet in a study in Ireland in the 1990s, the wake was identified as an extremely beneficial and useful process in helping the bereaved. Are we to lose another custom now, which is almost uniquely Irish and helpful to the bereaved? - Yours, etc,
Dr HELEN GREALLY, Clinical Psychologist, Galway.
Madam, - Mr Brian Crowley and others are wrong about Irish burial customs. The present practice of embalming after death for almost everyone came to this country with funeral homes only about 25 years ago.
If an EU directive forbidding the sale of formaldehyde is enforced in this country it will enable us to return to the long-standing Irish custom - i.e., burial on the third day.
Psychologically this is much better for the bereaved than the present drawn-out funeral practice which suits only the funeral directors. - Yours, etc,
ROBERT MacCARTHY, Dean of St Patrick's, Upper Kevin Street, Dublin 8.