Councillors seek answers over planned columbarium walls for ashes in Cork graveyards

Councillors seek assurances on timeframe ashes can be stored and what will happen if no relatives seek to repossess the urns

Columbarium walls at Killarney Burial Ground. Picture: Valerie O’Sullivan

Questions have been raised by Cork county councillors about the future policy their local authority will adopt for new Columbaria walls it is planning to introduce in graveyards in the region.

Councillors want ashes disposed of in a “sensitive manner” if the council puts a certain timeframe on the length of time the wall spaces can be used, as happens in other countries.

The increased popularity of cremation has led the council to look at creating special walls with individual cavities so families can house the ashes of loved ones in graveyards.

The first pilot project for their construction is being undertaken in Bantry. It is expected that cemeteries in Carrigaline and Mallow will follow.

Fianna Fáil councillor Audrey Buckley asked council officials for updates on her request to locate one in the Carrigaline area, especially as Cork’s only crematorium, in Ringaskiddy, is nearby.

Bantry trial

Officials said the design of the Bantry facility was being costed and, if the trial is successful, it is hoped to roll out a similar facility to both a South and North Cork location later.

While welcoming the proposal for columbaria in the Carrigaline area, municipal district council chairman Cllr Ben Dalton-O’Sullivan asked the council to seek information from other local authorities about bylaws they had introduced to govern columbaria.

He said he was uncomfortable after hearing that in some cases, as in Britain, that spaces can only be rented for between 20 to 25 years because of capacity issues and asked what happens to ashes after this period if no relatives seek to repossess the urns.

Mr Dalton-O’Sullivan said he hoped sales of columbarium niches would be permanent, but said “sensitive” bylaws had to be drawn up to ensure ashes are treated with respect if the council has to then dispose of them itself.

Ms Buckley said in many places in across Europe there is a 25-year timeframe for renting a wall space after which if the ashes are not claimed, they are spread in the graveyard or biodiversity gardens.