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ONLINE DEATH NOTICES are no longer an Irish monopoly. Three separate platforms are officially launching in the coming weeks to allow funeral directors to place death notices on their websites.
They are seeking to capitalise on the decision by the industry leader Rip.ie to begin charging funeral directors €100 for the submission of each death notice on its website.
The service had been free for almost all death notices.
One rival has said it has signed up at least 160 funeral directors to its platform, while another is expanding the range of options for bereaved families on how it wants to mark their loved one’s memory on the site.
With RIP.ie receiving 3.3 million views in November – shortly before its decision to start charging – it’s clear the appetite is strong for quick and accessible information on the latest coming and goings from this world.
While RIP.ie has stressed that families won’t ever be charged for submitting a death notice, there are fears the cost will end up being passed onto recently bereaved families.
A spokesperson for RIP.ie told The Journal last month that the fees would support “the development and enhancement of the RIP.ie service”. The company did not respond when contacted by The Journal over recent days.
Some of the rivals attempting to claim RIP’s position are hoping to maintain a free-of-charge service.
Others, such as the newly launched Death Notices website founded by Dundalk-based website designer Cormac Barry, are aiming to “keep the price as close to zero as possible”.
A factor cited by those throwing their hat into the ring was due to what they see as “profiteering” driving the decision to begin charging for death notices.
Letterkenny-based funeral supplier Danny Morning’s Condolence.ie is aiming to keep the service free.
This mirrors Funeral Notices Ireland, based out of Tuam, Co Galway, which tells followers on its recently created Facebook page not to pay “needless fees”. It plans to launch its website on 1 February.
Morning – who has worked in the funeral business for more than 30 years as a wholesale supplier for undertakers – said he has “160-170 funeral directors” signed up so far for Condolence.ie.
There are an estimated 800 funeral directors operating across Ireland. The vast majority work as standalone services, meaning there are many more out there yet to commit to a rival.
It’s far from the first time that fees have been sought for death notices, but is the first time it’s happening to an entirely online platform.
Radio stations and newspapers have both long charged. Some radio stations charge €150 for death notices, with the number of broadcasts varying depending on the station and whether there are any commercial agreements with the funeral director.
Before RIP.ie’s rise and rise, newspapers were one of the go-to places for families.
According to a 2001 report, newspaper death notices would range in cost from £2.80 to £6 a line – or between €3.40 and €7.20 in today’s money.
By 2009, a Sunday Times report found that the cost of placing a death notice in Ireland’s national newspapers came in at around €300. It noted this was an increase of up to 17% over the previous three years.
Speaking to The Journal, Morning said the days following a loved one’s death are “brutal” for bereaved families, with the announcement of a €100 fee for a death notice “hard to swallow” for funeral directors.
Morning added that he knew the brother and sister Jay Coleman and Dympna Coleman, who founded RIP.ie and sold it to the Irish Times Group. “They were brilliant and very successful in their own right but when it’s bought over and purchased, I’d think the money needs to be recouped,” he said.
“Funeral directors try to keep their bottom line as low as possible for grieving families and I don’t think people realise how much it can cost to do a funeral,” Morning said. “But not everybody has the money for that €100, it’s such a leap.
“The site will be basic at first. It will then be fleshed out with more information added over the coming months,” he added.
There are costs involved in such a venture and each platform will need to be sustainable, warned Barry, the founder of Death Notices.
He built “the bones” of the platform over Christmas, with additional features available as soon as it launches next week.
These range from Google Map links to the location of the service to a ‘timeline’ that allows families the option of adding photos of the deceased at major moments in their life. (A sample using AI is available here.)
Further longstanding features currently used by RIP.ie, such as charitable donations and condolence books, will be made available over the coming weeks and months.
There have also been multiple requests for a death notice app, but Barry said this would be a long way off.
However, Barry said the costs are expensive – hosting the site alone costs €200 per month. To make the business sustainable, he wants to make death notices “free” and keep “costs as close to zero as possible”.
His current plan is to hold discussions with funeral directors to come to an agreement on what they would be comfortable with supporting.
This may include charges for “added services such as condolence books”, Barry said. In return, he hopes to build a “reliable and secure” site that allows a “community platform to thrive”, similar to RIP.ie.
While the site has only begun verifying funeral directors and currently has 10 signed up, Barry believes he needed to put the emphasis on building the platform first.
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The “charity begins at home” brigade are out in force. Charity doesn’t begin at home, it begins with whoever is the worst off.
Well said Neal Ireland. These people are so much worse off than those needing help here in Ireland. In the grand scheme of things €1.9 million isn’t huge money here but will make a huge difference in places like Sudan.
The original meaning of “Charity begins at home” has unfortunately been lost…
Spending the money in Ireland. Stop taking medical cards from the needy, reduce the closure of the Rape Crisis Centres, fund the necessary community organisations and get the homeless off the Street. There you go well spent and went a long way to providing the necessary. It’s good to be seen given Foreign Aid while our little country perishes at the hands of idiot Governments.
Do you honestly think that if we didn’t send this money to Sudan that even one penny of it would go towards any of the things you listed? How anybody can begrudge this vital support is beyond me.
Perishes? Overdramatic.
What about spending the money on our homeless people instead of giving it to other countries
What about spending money on teaching punctuation to sinn féinners ?
A psychologist friend of mine suggested that Patrick has a small manhood, hence his behaviour. The Popeye sailor man would also suggest his attraction to sailors and his fear to come out of the closet.
That’s correct. I read an article before that forum trolls either have tiny johnsons or can’t get them up for very long. The frustration leads them to lash out online in anger at the world. Great to study however.
While we’re being pedantic about punctuation, there’s no space between a word and a question mark. Practice what you preach.
Debbie, there should not, there was not but there is. Why? I do not know.
corrupt government will prob take 3.9 million of that
Mathematics and mé féiners do not seem to mix.
Apologies Patrick, I meant 1.9 million.
Its not direct government aid so hopefully the government of South Sudan won’t be able to get their hands on it because NGO’s such as the red cross do lifesaving work in these places. For those that say charity starts at home it doesn’t, charity is for those who need it most. It shouldn’t just be Ireland looking after the Irish it should be everyone helping the less fortunate/needy. Take for example the article during the week about the Irish funded heart surgery team sent to the Ukraine providing vital lifesaving operations for children. That article was well received without anyone suggesting the money should be used at home so what’s the difference here? The aid here is needed more urgently also. (I’m aware that the surgical team were funded through a charitable organization but one which, no doubt, receives a grant from the government)
We should all give we will never have to look out our window and see that devastation were talking roughly the population of Ireland on the brink of starvation here get a grip and donate.
We had our own famines and we still love to cry about it. We are different to other peoples, sure everybody loves the Irish Olé Olé Olé. Let other starving people bugger off. Do they not realise the price of a pint in Ireland?
The NGOs who get this money will spend the bulk of it on air conditioned cars, air conditioned rooms and the same food they get at home so that they live like they’re at home. Unfortunately this is a waste of money.
Wonder where all the oil money is going
Throw it in the Liffey be better off them government will get there greedy MIT’s on it and that will be it . money never gets to them . that’s why the problem will never ever get sorted.
I am in no way opposed to Ugandan’s receiving aid and I know the situation is dire over there but why is our government so quick to send money overseas and not think about using that money for our own homeless people. I just don’t get it. In Brazil the poor and needy are getting beaten off the streets so travelling football fans don’t have to see them. Does the media care about that? But luckily they’ve got Bill Gates over there to vaccinate everyone in the middle of another US proxy war.
Media very select in its reporting
The government are signed up to give millions to Africa every year. Something in the region of 236 million I think.
I notice there’s a general trend in being pro-aid and against those who would rather keep that money here but if you look at how aid is administered by Aid organisations in third world countries then you would see that the money is never used effectively, however that 2 million could change a lot if used properly in our black spots within out capital and across Ireland. Hence charity does start at home if the resources are best utilised here
50 cent each …sound :-)
Is there any country in Africa with a stable government…Christ!!!
*facepalm*
5 cent each…. sound :-)
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