Irishmen bring their lack of romanticism to the grave

LET’S be honest. Traditionally, Irishmen are not renowned for being the world’s greatest romantics.

While our Continental counterparts woo their womenfolk with expensive chocolate and gentle caresses, an Irish guy’s idea of a good night in is a packet of bacon fries, a can of cool lager and a snog with a hot chic in front of the telly.

William Butler Yeats summed it all up years ago when he reckoned that romantic Ireland was ‘dead and gone and with O’Leary in the grave’. Of course, he was thinking of more patriotic kind of romance but it looks like he was right about his fellow Irishmen, if the results of a recent national study are to be believed.

The survey for CUNA Mutual – a financial services and life assurance provider – was conducted to analyse Irish people’s attitudes towards death and funerals.

It showed that more Irishmen (12%) said that they would like to be buried with their favourite football team jersey rather than their wedding ring (9%).

Of course, that has to exclude Newcastle United supporters and other own-goalers although, as Munster rugby fans demonstrate, you don’t have to win them all to keep the love affair with your supporters alive.

The survey also revealed that most of us couldn’t be bothered taking out any life assurance until our lives are more than half way over. In fact, the results indicated that whilst the majority of us felt that we would live until our mid-80s, most of us left it relatively late in life – 67% of us leaving it until our sixties – before considering a life assurance policy.

According to CUNA Mutual’s chief Paul Walsh, this is significant: “Considering that most life assurance policies become less accessible and more expensive, the older we get, it is surprising to think that people are still waiting so long.”

The survey also revealed something that Mr Walsh finds even more alarming. “Perhaps more disturbing than people putting off life assurance is that when questioned, it became obvious that many respondents mistook their mortgage life policy for life assurance. The two things are very separate as a mortgage protection policy protects your mortgage – for the bank – and may not directly provide funds for your family in the case of your death.”

That, of course, could explain the chosen burial shroud of many Irish men.

If you haven’t left enough behind to tog you out in a decent suit, that football jersey might as well see you out.