W1A-010 Funeral business-0.txt
CHAPTER 1 THE BACKGROUND

1.1 INTRODUCTION

A brief study into the background of the funeral directing industry is necessary, in order to show how todays' business has evolved. In a relatively short period of time (two hundred years at the most), the act of burying the dead, in this part of the world, has, from being a private, family run affair, become a recognized business form, competing for a market like any other commercial interest.

There have always been 'undertakers' of sorts operating in the confines of urban space. It can be a dirty, smelly and altogether distressing task in dealing with the deceased, and as a consequence people have happily paid others to carry out various tasks on their behalf. However, the various tasks tended to be associated with different persons - the gravediggers, coffin makers, embalmers, doctors, churches etc. The service supplied today accomodates all these different aspects, relieving the burden of organisation from private households.

Before the modern funeral business as we know it today, there were three distinct recognizable stages of its' development. Over time, it became manner of form that various vital functions changed hands. Gradually a new profession evolved, incorporating a greater number of services as time went on. The following pages examine this development in greater detail.

1.2. (i) THE BEGINNINGS - PRE 1800

Coffins as we know them first made their appearance towards the end of the seventeenth century. Before that time the dead were buried in shrouds or within hollowed out tree trunks. Lead lined caskets did exist but these were a priviledge of the wealthier classes and clergy.

In the majority of cases, funerals were the sole responsibility of the immediate family. In Dublin, the name undertaker was in use in the early eighteenth century and like other trades, those engaged in it, operated in shops designated by a sign or symbol. The exact service supplied by these undertakers is not so clear but they most likely provided some form of coffin. "Mortician" is a word which slowly crept into usage in place of "Undertaker", a description which ousted "Coffin-maker". (1)

In newspapers as far back as 1736 and 1770, these undertakers advertised their their wares, such as Thomas Raper, a carpenter in Thomas Court, "opposite St. Catherine,s "selling "Plain Oak Coffins, neatly furnished" for sixteen shillings, whilst his highest price, for a "Fully mounted Coffin, silvered, lined, and covered" was £ 3.19s.7d. "Likewise" the advertisement ran "deal coffins, of all sizes, ready made"." (2)
Thirty years before the appearance of that advertisement, the parish carpenter of St. Catherines made coffins as is mentioned in the following news item taken from Faulkner's Dublin Journal: "Last week, the wife of one Kiskeen, in St. Catherine's Parish, who had been sick above a fortnight, expired in all appearances, was washed, and stretched, and lay lifeless above for four hours, but when the poor parish carpenter came to take make of her for a coffin, the poor woman groaned and breathed and immediately came to herself, since which time she is perfectly recovered.
"This is the second time she hath disappointed her loving husband in the same manner."

The same paper had another story to report some six weeks later, this read: "This week dyed (in earnest) the wife of one Kiskeen, who was twice ready to be buried formerly, but to her loving husband's disappointment came to life. Fearing the like accident might happen again, he immediately put her into a coffin, had it nailed up buryed her the next day"." (3)

The final years of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth century, saw the coffin makers setting up coffin yards in Cook Street. Cook Street in the past had had other functions, being located in the oldest part of the city. Three of the nearby streets have names which speak for themselves - Cook Street (more correctly Vicus Cocorum, "the street of cooks"), Winetavern Street and Fishamble Street. (4) Cook Street was to become for a time the main centre of the coffin trade, and its function was as supplier of coffins. Normally their produce was shown on sale outside the premises for the bereaved to inspect, choose and buy a coffin, with which to carry out the burial. The brilliantly lit coffin sheds with their clean smell of sawdust and new wood, open to the public, since people did not steal coffins which were unpawnable, contrasted favorably with the dingy surroundings. (5)
It was from Cook Street that some of the oldest present-day undertakers, found their origins but it was not until later on in the nineteenth century that this new service became apparent. Another advertisement tells us that Charles Mitchell had succeded to the business of D. Staunton, deceased, and he respectfully informed his friends and the public that "he continues the coffin and shroud warehouse, at Number 14, Cook Street, Orders Daily Attended to". (6)
According to one of the funeral directors spoken to during the field work stage, the Cook Street and Winetavern Street operations tended to cater for the working class slum/tenement areas of Dublin, the housing around Cook Street being particularly bad. Almost a quarter of the buildings in the vicinity were in ruins or were vacant, and some sites were just waste ground.

Dublins' gentry at the time ignored the Cook Street produce, preferring instead to use coffins from Millar and Beatty's, furniture makers, who had an outlet in Grafton Street up to the middle of the nineteenth century.

The demise of the Cook Street emporiums coincided with the emergence of the undertaking trade itself, as it started incorporating a more complete service on offer. Out of a total of nineteen coffin-makers in Dublin in 1836, sixteen were in Cook Street. In 1880, there were only five there out of a total of twenty five in the city as a whole. (7) By this stage many of the coffin-making families were now employed by morticians in other parts of the city.

1.2. (ii) 1814-1900 THE EMERGENCE STAGE.

The oldest funeral directing business in existence today is Nichols'of Lombard Street, formerly of Lincoln Place. Its initial function was quite limited, supplying horse drawn vehicles, for a) Hearses for funeral processions from church to graveyard, and b) Supplying hacks to the gentry for the hunting season. Therefore in the early part of the nineteenth century the family (or whoever was organising the burial), purchased the coffin either from Cook Street or Grafton Street and arranged all other aspects of the funeral such as church services, grave openings and alike themselves. The earliest firms, still in existence today, merely supplied a means of transport from the church to the various graveyards around Dublin at that time. These included Mount Jerome, Glasnevin, Deans Grange or in local churches which had adjacent graveyards.

Gradually, the role of the mortician changed later into the nineteenth century. Up to 1890, there were six main funeral directors in the city. (Fanagans, Nichols, Farrells, Corrigans, Keogh Hendricks and Wallers). These firms employed most of the coffin-making families who had previously been in Cook Street, such as the Kenny's, Byrnes and Kellers. The firms which had formerly provided a transport service had been otherwise known as Job Carriage Proprietors supplying hearses and men only. By 1890, with the coffin-makers now working from private yards, they became known as Complete Funeral Undertakers supplying transport, coffins and immediate requisites such as burial clothing.

The choice of location of these new firms was very much limited by the size of property which could be obtained. In order to carry out a very basic service, an undertaker required a yard which could cater for a minimum of half a dozen horses. This may account for some firms changing their location. Nichols moved in 1890 from Lincoln Place nearby Lombard Street because of an increasing demand on space. More horses needed a greater sized area to live in, hence firms had to move to where they could acquire sufficient land. There is no evidence to suggest that firms at this time changed location to benefit from a change in the socio-economic status of their clients. In fact, firms usually changed location to within a short distance of the old premises.

It was also at this time that the general public began to recognise the funeral business as a separate profession. Families adopted allegencies to particular firms, much in the same way as families do with doctors or solicitors. This may have been due to the suitable location of a certain firm, or, the type of clientele which regularly used the firm. Religion and class status would certainly have been a factor.

What is undisputed is that the funerals businesses at this time were extremely busy. Death rates were, in places, exceptionally high and lead to enormous pressure on the graveyards of Dublin. The two main cemeteries, Glasnevin and Mount Jerome, both report huge numbers of interments at this time. Glasnevin had interments of all religions - the first important burial there had been of a Protestant, Edward Ruthven, a colleague of O'Connell - the majority of Protestants chose the exclusive Mount Jerome. The proportion of burials reflected the sectarian divide. By 1900, there were something like 1,000 burials a year at Mount Jerome. Around 4,000 paid-burials took place annually at Glasnevin, while between 2,500 and 3,000 paupers were interred in 'Poor Ground'." (8)

There were only six firms to carry out the large number of funerals in the city at this time. This must have lead to a shortage of resources at crucial times. George Bernard Shaw described how slow moving funeral carriages, once out of sight of houses and shops, galloped to the cemetery gates before slowing down once more, became an amusing feature of Dublin life at this time.

1.2. (iii) THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

The great advantage that the funeral business had over other firms which primarily offered a local service was that it was transport based. It could go beyond the limits of other business types to carry out a 'contract' without having to incur the expense of opening up premises elsewhere. Also the vast majority of Dublin's population lived between the two canals, not requiring further expansion. If a burial had to take place outside of the usual operating area, it was within the scope of the firm to be able to carry out.

Gradually, the number of funeral firms began to increase. This was at a time when the absolute numbers living in Dublin was also increasing. This is examined in detail in the next chapter.

The third phase of the trades' development was as a result of the widespread introduction of the telephone. It had a number of effects on the firm - customer relationship. For the first time funerals could be arranged over the telephone and this lead to the firms offering a more complete service to that of before. This included the insertion of death notices into the morning and evening newspapers, the supplying of floral tributes and the responsibility of opening a grave in the desired cemetery.

Inevitably, throughout this century, the motor vehicle has replaced the horse as being the main form of transport. Medical procedures regarding the treatment of remains has become far more advanced and far more widespread. Almost without exception, coffins are no longer made on the premises of funeral directing firms. This task is now carried out by separate firms who can concentrate wholly on this aspect, and drive the per unit cost of manufacture lower. Funeral firms now purchase ready made coffins from these firms and assemble, apply a finish and line the interior of the coffins themselves.

It would be foolish however, to suggest that it was the telephone and technical advances which were the main factors in the spatial development of the funeral business this century. Throughout this time, Dublin has been changing in terms of its size, shape and form. It is this, above all else, which has dictated the spatial changes in location of the funeral business as we know it today.
