Cremation in Ireland

In pagan Ireland, ashes and bone fragments were deposited in an ornamented urn, generally made of baked clay, but sometimes of stone instead.

Cremation and burial were practised simultaneously, complete skeletons have been found along with urns containing ashes and burnt bones in the same grave.

It is thought that the remains might have been placed in stone basins in Newgrange as a sort of religious ceremony.

assume that when the sun shines into Newgrange on the Winter Solstice, it represents the souls of the departed being transported into the next life by the sunlight.

[4] Cremation facilities were opened in County Cavan in mid-2015, in Dublin's Dardistown in October 2016 and in Shannon in 2017.