How a burning issue has gone off the boil
How times change. I recall in 1976 putting the proposal to the county council for a crematorium in the city region. It was seconded by Deputy Eileen Desmond and supported by Deputy Donal Creed and the late deputy Sean Brosnan.
It was defeated by 28 votes to 4.
And what a response I got. The venom poured like ink from the pens of anonymous writers damning me as an atheist, communist, pro-British and that I’d “roast in hell” for suggesting such an unchristian form of burial.
Despite the ‘burning’ criticism at that time, I have since then pursued the crematorium proposal at every estimates meeting of the council’s south Cork committee. No later than November 15 last, the county council agreed to pursue the proposal with Cork corporation and other interested parties.
Local authorities could do much worse than to cater for such demand by providing the facility for those who desire it. Many would find cremation much less gory than burial. It would give hope to those people seeking an alternative. There should be the right to cremation in the Cork region. Dublin has three crematoria. Let’s hope the Cork project will not be ‘buried’ at the planning stage.
Cllr Noel Collins
St Jude’s
Midleton
Co Cork
