Cremation costs Northern Ireland: province's second crematorium opens next week in Newtownabbey - with some claiming rise in demand linked to secularisation

Antrim and Newtownabbey Crematorium will open this Monday 5 June on the Doagh Road, Newtownabbey.

The £5m investment is only the second crematorium in Northern Ireland - after Roselawn in Belfast - and will offer the latest technology for services, covering music, visual tributes and live streaming.

Mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey Mark Cooper said: “The new crematorium will provide a crucial service for families across all of Northern Ireland.”

He added: “Due to the lack of burial space the demand for cremations has increased significantly over the past number of years and this new crematorium will provide more options for bereaved families.”

Belfast City Council says that its crematorium at Roselawn was originally designed to handle 700 cremations a year, when it opened in 1961. Last year it carried out almost 4000.

According to the Cremation Society in Maidstone, about 77% of all deaths in the UK now are followed by cremation. It says that Orthodox Jews, the Greek Orthodox Church and Muslims do not currently approve of cremation.

It is understood that pre-Christian societies saw cremation as normal, while the Christian tradition preferred burial, due to their hope of resurrection of the body.

However in more recent times, many churches are happy to affirm the practice, there being no specific biblical doctrine on the matter.

A spokesman for the Presbyterian Church in Ireland said it has “no theological objections to cremations and ministers take part in these services, undertaking them in light of the personal wishes of each family”.

Similarly, a Church of Ireland spokesman added: “Under Church of Ireland canon law, the duty of burial of the dead is taken to include the burial of ashes following cremation. Church of Ireland clergy may therefore lead and/or participate in funeral services which include a cremation.”

Kathy Riddick, Campaigns Manager for Humanists UK, told the News Letter: “The increase in the number of non religious people [in society] may mean more are inclined to their own personal choices at end of life rather than those designated by religious traditions. So there is a link between changes in beliefs and the rise in cremations. But from an environmental perspective we agree with the search for alternative methods to burial which have less impact such as cremation."

She added that cost and time are also factors pushing people in the direction of cremations, especially in the current cost of living crisis and with long waiting lists for burials.

The comparative costs of burials and cremations in NI appear to demonstrate why tight budgets would sway many towards cremation.

Antrim and Newtownabbey Council said that a burial plot – and the first opening of it - would cost a resident of the borough £580, while comparative cremation costs are £475.

Belfast City Council said that a "full depth" grave costs £633 while cremation costs £408; a grave for cremated remains costs only £185.