UCC research finds digital tools and technology are an integral part of Ireland's mourning practices

People have found meaningful ways to use the online practices, blending them with long-established rituals, the study team at University College Cork said

The study shows that people found live-streamed funerals challenging and deeply unfulfilling during the pandemic, and that the mourning rituals at that time generated a sense of unfulfillment, particularly in relation to the physical and social rituals around bereavement. File photo

Technology and digital tools have become an established part of how we mourn in Ireland and are here to stay, despite a sense of unease around their use during covid, new research has found.

People have found meaningful ways to use the online practices, blending them with long-established rituals, the study team at University College Cork (UCC) said.

But they have also warned about privacy and data safety issues, about interactions in online mourning, and of the implications of using commercial platforms for some of the activity.

“Digital tools and systems are expected to remain part of mourning practices in the foreseeable future,” one of the study authors, Professor Luigina Ciolfi, Professor of Human Computer Interaction at UCC School of Applied Psychology, said.

“There is important work to be done to integrate digital and in-person experiences in sensitive ways, for example thinking of mourners who are abroad or unable to participate in person and only have limited ways to share their own grief and their support.

It is also important to consider the privacy and safety of data and of interactions in online mourning, and the implications of using commercial platforms for these activities. 

Study co-author, Ava McCoy, a graduate of the BA Applied Psychology at UCC, said their findings show the experience of technology surrounding mourning is complex and still evolving, with more research required.

In what is one of the first studies of its kind, the UCC team set out to investigate how people experienced the use of technology in mourning rituals during the pandemic, when strict public health measures limited attendances and interaction at funerals.

The study shows that people found live-streamed funerals challenging and deeply unfulfilling during the pandemic, and that the mourning rituals at that time generated a sense of unfulfillment, particularly in relation to the physical and social rituals around bereavement.

“In the Irish experience of mourning, there is a rich history of ‘a good send-off’, with rituals dating back centuries still remaining today,” Prof. Ciolfi said. “The loss of mourning rituals and gestures of support such as handshaking, hugging, house visits and physical gift giving were particularly missed.” 

But the study found that while the use of digital tools for mourning was a challenging experience at first, it did yield some positive outcomes, with participants acknowledging the importance of live-streamed funerals and online books of condolences.

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There is also a consensus in favour of the continued, sensitive integration of these tools and of blending them with long-held traditional practices, the study found.

It also says RIP.ie, which is owned by the Irish Times Group, of which the Irish Examiner is part, and which was at the centre of controversy when it introduced a €100 death notice charge from January 1, is now “fully a part of how people participate in mourning”.

“At the time of its acquisition in 2024 by the Irish Times Group, RIP.ie reportedly received 60 million page views a month, with the population of Ireland at just over 5.2 million,” Prof. Ciolfi said.