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.

Cost of a death notice

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.

‘Hard to swallow’ fees

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.

Costs and new features

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.