How are funerals so much faster in Northern Ireland than in rest of the UK?

[Masaladosai]

Sadly a relative of a friend passed away in Northern Ireland recently. From sudden passing to the funeral (burial) including open casket at home took three days. Compare that to the funerals in have attended in England in the last five years - all ranged between two weeks to over a month to happen. No complicating factors (eg need for post mortem, or police investigation).
Talking with friend, it seems that funerals are often swift in N. Ireland. And they often seem to take quite a long time to happen in England (purposefully not commenting on Scotland or Wales as I have no idea re there).
Anyone got any thoughts?

Culture as far as I know. Presumably they don't have to wait weeks for PMs either.

I don't know, but theirs is a far better system. Wish this country did it like that too.

Same in the Irish Republic too. Much better way to do it

Scotland here - about a week for cremation is normal where I am. IME it’s booking the funeral tea where the bottleneck occurs.

I think a week is fine, gives the bereaved a little breathing space, but also lets them get it behind them.

I went to a church service which was after about 3 weeks, but I think that was about family travel.

I think it's not enough crematorium sites. Bristol has a population of half a million but within the city there are only 2 crematoria.

In Scotland it’s usually a week or so, I was surprised speaking to a friend in England that her mums funeral would take a month to organise, even with post mortem it wouldn’t take more than 10 days where I am.

I think that many funerals are in rural churches with their own graveyard so no crematorium to book. Getting the dates aligned for the church and the crematorium in England, in a town or city, can take a while.

Yes our funerals here in NI are typically 3 days if no autopsy required.
We also often bring the person home and have visitors to say goodbye rather than a funeral home.

I think it must be so stressful and sad having to wait a month, but everyone is different so maybe that time gives folk time to come to terms with it.

Personally for me I found after the funeral I was able to sort of relax and grieve properly rather than it being ahead of me.

I'm in Scotland, and although funerals do take a bit longer now than they used to - any delays are generally caused by medical professionals and registration staff taking longer to sign and issue paperwork. There are now also further delays post-Shipman, but it is still possible to have a funeral 6 or 7 days after the death. Most take place well within a fortnight unless there are particular reasons for a delay.

Going by experiences of family in England, there has a been a fairly long-standing tradition of a lengthy delay between death and funeral in that part of the UK.

So probably a combination of cultural and practical/administrative factors.

A much larger population in England, and that's probably the reason for what seems like a long time compared to Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Some good points. I might be wrong but I think the deceased person in the NI funeral I refer to is likely to have already bought her own plot so I assume that would speed things up a lot, compared to (the family) needing to book a crematorium slot which may be booked up for a while.

I would say the average wait time is 2 weeks in Central Scotland.

From personal experience of family bereavements in recent years (Scotland) it varied from 7 days to 3 weeks. No PM required. I found what caused hold ups was trying to coordinate church and crematorium. The priest was very inflexible about Mass times. It was 10am or nothing and if there was already a funeral booked for then you had to wait for the next 10am and so on while trying to coordinate that with available morning crematorium slots .

I have relations in Ireland and it tends to be a very quick process there. Usually 2-3 days unless waiting for relatives to arrive from further afield. They live in a rural area and most folk have family plots in the church graveyard. Even the gravediggers are men in the local community.

Because it’s Ireland.

I think in Ireland and NI funeral director work with the expectation of having the funeral in 3 days.
You can phone the funeral director in the middle of the night and they give advice and options and do a lot of the coordinating with services, meals etc

In the funeral you went to the person possibly had purchased a plot, but honestly, it's the norm here that funerals are 3 days anyway.

The exceptions would be Christmas and New Year , my MIL died on New Years Eve and it was a week, but that was unusual and due to a back up over the holidays.

I spoke to the guys that work in the local cemetry. They said the delay was for the benefit of the Funeral Directors ... so they can use the minimum of cars and other services. They suggested using a smaller firm, who may not have such emphasis on their own convenience.

Oops, I'm in the South of England. Funerals can easily take a month or more.

A friends dad died in Scotland and had to wait three and a half weeks for the cremation, this was about a month ago. Compare that to my mum who died during Covid in a different part of Scotland, we had about 10 days to wait and I was amazed it was so quick.

By the time my sister is cremated on the 12th of April she’ll have been dead for just under 5 weeks. I still can’t understand why?

Mostly choice. People tend to wait to allow others to arrange to travel, also to get a "good" aka lunchtime slot at the crem and a decent venue afterwards. Plenty of emphasis on minimising disruption for all key people so taking into consideration holidays, shifts for key workers etc.

I organise funerals, plenty of families request a 6 week wait out of choice especially for older people, most I've had recently was 10 weeks, their choice.

I should add we have had as little as 9 days, and if it's a burial in the church ground it could be done in just a few days assuming the registrar gets the paperwork done, no green form, no burial unfortunately.

That’s how it is here in Ireland. We normally have funerals within 3 days or so.

My uncle died in England before Christmas and his funeral wasn’t until nearly the end of January. It seems mad to me, and I know my cousins were stuck in a strange sort of limbo while waiting. Over here he would have been buried before Christmas

In NI majority of deaths involve burial. Although burial space is becoming trickier around the greater Belfast area, there is still capacity. Until very recently there was only one Crematorium in Northern Ireland and increased demand for cremation slots, this was having an impact on the speed funerals were taking place. There is now a second Crematorium opened and AFAIK plans for another underway.
In England as I understand, the majority of deaths involve cremation and the pressure for slots is why things take longer. England also more densely populated.

Someone on a thread about funerals in the Irish Republic pointed out how a much higher proportion than in England are burials, so no surprise.