Friday, August 29, 2008
DCC give the atheists to the Prods
It appears it is not easy to find a grave for an atheist in Donegal. There is no municipal graveyard and Roy Greenslade had been informed that a religious service would be required to use the various church graveyards (although this advice may have been mistaken). So instead his atheist mother’s remains were brought across the border and buried in Londonderry. Derry City Council has different designated areas for different religions within its graveyards but none for atheists, when asked where she would be placed a graveyard official said:
“...we’re putting her in with the Protestants.”
Fair Deal @ 09:48 AM
The crux of the matter is in the last line:
“Dick Spicer of the Humanist Association of Ireland expressed amazement that there was a county in Ireland which did not have a municipal graveyard.”Indeed.
I have some sympathy for the churches involved; why should it fall to them to find house (or grave) room for someone whose beliefs meant that the person wanted nothing to do with them in their lifetime? And what’s wrong with a good atheist cremation anyway?
All that said, Derry CC need to have a good hard look at themselves regarding their graveyard policy.
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 10:16 AM“why should it fall to them"-
It really should be a matter for the state to provide form them. Cradle to grave, and all that.Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 10:27 AMI would imagine space is the primary issue here.
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 10:28 AM“space”
Dec, I think there is probably a more reasonable and cost effective suggestion than blasting corpses into space.
Tell me you arnt a concillor!
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 10:34 AMDec, I think there is probably a more reasonable and cost effective suggestion than blasting corpses into space.
ggn
I think a DUP councillor once suggested (earth-based) incinerators…
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 10:41 AMThe DUP firing up the ovens for athiests?- quelle surprise....
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 10:49 AMStill willing to bet it won’t open the ghastly Greenslade’s eyes as to the profoundly sectarian nature of his beloved northern nationalism. (Out of interest, do you think our wonderful Equality Police will get round to looking at Derry City Council’s employment habits and ‘ethos’ its workers are subjected to any time this millennium?)
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 10:54 AMThe DUP firing up the ovens for athiests?- quelle surprise....
Hmm, not sure it was aimed at atheists.
Still willing to bet it won’t open the ghastly Greenslade’s eyes as to the profoundly sectarian nature of his beloved northern nationalism.
Euither that or prudent cemetary plot management.
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 11:06 AMI offer this without comment, but do pay particular attention to the words of the travelling salesmen in the opening seconds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WO0bBOyh58&feature=related
Keeping on a Western theme I am reminded of a scene from Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid where, after Billy has escaped from jail and shot down Crazy Bob in the street, Garrett tells the townsfolk to, “Git ol’ Bob offa the ground and git him into it”.
I can’t find the clip but it follows on shortly after this scene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9LHGKy2UZ0
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 11:17 AM‘All that said, Derry CC need to have a good hard look at themselves regarding their graveyard policy.’
Did I misunderstand the situation? Was not the lady buried in Derry’s non-religious, municipal cemetery?
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 01:05 PM“Was not the lady buried in Derry’s non-religious, municipal cemetery”
No she was buried in the Protestant section of the municipal cemetery
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 01:14 PM“No she was buried in the Protestant section of the municipal cemetery”
Have you a problem with that? Presumably there is little space in the Fenian end and we can’t have an ‘integrated’ cemetery lest the Papists spill their ‘Holy’ water over those of good Protestant folk during their annual ‘Blessing of the Graves’ like they do in Newtownabbey.
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 01:35 PMI was only talking last week with my son about this, when we visited his maternal great grandmothers grave. It is a beautiful spot and I would like to be buried there, as I am not keen on these massive municipal grave yards. Sadly I said it is not to be as I’m an atheist so they will not let me in. He replied no bother, we will not tell them and if the ask I will lie, the bastards have been bullshitting for 2000 years.
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 01:36 PMIs there a “protestant” area of Derry’s municipal cemetery? That is certainly news to me.
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 01:48 PMHF
“Is there a “protestant” area of Derry’s municipal cemetery?”
According to the comment attributed to a Council official, yes (as well as Catholic and Muslim sections).
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 02:11 PMMick Hall
He replied no bother, we will not tell them and if the ask I will lie, the bastards have been bullshitting for 2000 years.
LOL I like that! Mind you, two wrongs etc
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 02:50 PMI didn’t know that, the protestant and muslim sections must be very small indeed. What about the Sikhs and the Buddhists?
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 03:06 PMHarry,
I think that what you may have missed is that there seems to be no specific accomodation in Donegal and Derry for people who simply happen to find themselves ... dead!
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 03:16 PMHF
Only three get a mention in the attributed comments
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 03:28 PM>we can’t have an ‘integrated’ cemetery
so much for a shared future
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 04:00 PMThe final assertion of human religiousity;
Divided in life - Divided in death.
“...and God bless us all”
I would recommend to all to read the small beautiful book of essays on life and death by the Irish- American undertaker, from a family of undertakers, and poet, Thomas Lynch, that has the title The Undertaking.
Make of it what you will.
“...the dead don’t care” says Kinsella, but, “...the living, bound by their adverbs and their actuarials, still do. Now, there is the difference and why I am in business The living are careful and oftentimes caring. The dead are careless, or maybe it’s care-less. Either way, they don’t care. These are unremarkable and verifiable truths”.
He goes on:
“My former mother-in law, herself an unremarkable and verifiable truth, was always fond of holding forth with Cagneyesque bravado - to wit: ‘When I’m dead just throw me in a box and throw me in a hole.’ But whenever I would remind her that we did substantially that with everyone, the woman would grow sullen and a little cranky.”
Posted by on Aug 29, 2008 @ 05:45 PMIf someone suggested that a catholic needed to go through a protestant religious ceremony in order to be buried, or vice versa, there’d be an uproar.
How can anyone seriously try and claim that Ireland is a secular country?
Posted by on Aug 30, 2008 @ 12:59 PMI think that you are all missing the point here. If the Catholics in Donegal can bury their own dead and the Protestants can do the same, surely it’s time the Atheist Church got its act together and looked after its own.
Posted by on Aug 30, 2008 @ 03:35 PMThe point you’re all missing is that this story is bollocks, as confirmed today by every church and council contacted by every newspaper that followed it up.
It should have been obvious enough. As a source, Greenslade is not exactly… reliable. In this instance, he appears to have set the facts aside for a patronising piece of cod oirishry, which should give his republican friends pause for thought next time he comes bounding up to them like a eager puppy.Posted by on Aug 30, 2008 @ 04:03 PMShore Road Resident- Can you provide a link of one of to one of these papers websites?
ThanksPosted by on Aug 30, 2008 @ 04:22 PM
