THERE IS NO escaping the inevitability of our collective end. Death and taxes remain life’s only true certainties.

Given that, it’s surprising that we don’t discuss more about what to do after we finally depart. These tend to be questions left for the remaining loved ones to answer once someone has gone. 

Humanity has always approached death in varying ways. Burial and cremation have been the prevailing approaches. In the late nineteenth century, advocates of cremation argued its benefits from a public health and sanitary perspective, asserting that Britain’s cemeteries and graveyards were not properly maintained.

Columbarium wall. Dublin Cemeteries Trust Dublin Cemeteries Trust

They claimed that these burial grounds were sources of disease because bodies were not buried properly.

The cremation advocate, William Robinson, wrote a book in 1889 called Cremation and Urn-Burial, or The Cemeteries of the Future. In it, he said that the small cemeteries then in existence in London would disappear over time because land would become valuable and used for development. 

Robinson argued that when cemeteries closed, graves ran into disuse and decay, which offended the living. Urn burials were less likely to offend the living, as the same space could be repurposed.

Glasnevin Cemetery Dublin Cemeteries Trust Dublin Cemeteries Trust

Robinson’s advocacy for urn burials was premised on the belief that such cemeteries would never have to close. Vaults,........

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