Online Funerals for the Diaspora

A new business venture by County Clare entrepreneur Alan Foudy (pictured below) plans to live-stream funerals online in an attempt to ease travel concerns of many in the global Irish diaspora. The service, called Funerals Live, is explicitly targeted to family members and friends who live abroad and can’t make it home for the service, as well as relatives in hospice and nursing homes.
“Wherever in the world our client may be, whether it is in Australia or the United States, this service provides them with private weblink to a live stream of a funeral service or the option of a video recording of the entire service, including the burial, within two hours of its conclusion,” he also told RTÉ.
In order to protect privacy, Foudy says, each service would be password protected so that only invited guests will have access. Of course, it will only be available with permission of the relevant parish priest and members of the immediate family as well.
According to the BBC, Foudy came up with the idea after being asked to provide a DVD of a funeral service to relatives and friends who could not attend. “The general feeling was that a live webcast or a delayed broadcast of the service would be a better option rather than having to wait up to two weeks for a DVD to arrive by post,” he said.
Currently the only streaming service of its kind in Ireland or the U.K, The Irish Independent reports, Foudy estimates that the service will cost between 350 and 850 euros, or about the cost of an intercontinental plane ticket.