Plan now, for peace of mind

 Yes, when you think the time is right. It's entirely up to you as to when you involve your loved ones in this conversation. One of the key points you should consider is who you want to be responsible for organising a funeral and ensuring that your wishes are followed.

Yes.  Many local authorities and other cemeteries only allow grave purchase at or around the time someone passes away. However, at Dublin Cemeteries Trust's cemeteries, you can buy a plot at any time - maybe decades before you actually need it! 

If you have chosen to plan in advance, and you wish to buried please contact our Pre-Planning adviser who will guide you through the process with expert care and sensitivity. 

A grave can be bought at the time of arranging the funeral, but more frequently nowadays people are securing a grave in advance for either themselves or their family. While there can be a misconception that you can only buy a grave upon the death of a loved one, this is not the case in Dublin Cemeteries Trust cemeteries. You can buy a grave at any time, planning many years in advance if you wish, and have it for the future.

A grave or graves can be purchased in advance in the following cemeteries: Glasnevin, Newlands Cross, Dardistown and Goldenbridge (no new graves are available in Palmerstown Cemetery).

If you are interested in learning more about what’s involved in purchasing a grave in any of our cemeteries, please feel free to contact us. We will arrange an appointment to show you the range of options and locations available in your preferred cemetery at a time that suits you.

There are a range of graves or burial plots available across our cemeteries. Depending on your requirements or wishes we are happy to talk you through the options available. In our cemeteries, we offer several types of plots for burial from one person to several depending on the cemetery and the location in a particular cemetery.

In certain cases, depending on the location of the grave, ashes can be interred in a grave. Talk to us in advance to share your wishes so we can provide you with the best option. Remains that have been cremated and placed in an urn can be buried in a grave in a cemetery or in a Columbarium Wall (a wall with a number of small niches which hold ashes contained in an urn). In some of our cemeteries, we have secluded, beautifully landscaped memorial gardens for cremation urns.

New plots or graves are available in Glasnevin, Dardistown, Newlands Cross and Goldenbridge Cemeteries.  No new graves available in Palmerstown.  

If you are interested in learning more about what’s involved in purchasing a grave in any of our cemeteries, please feel free to contact us.

If you decide that cremation is your preferred option, you can state that clearly at the beginning of your funeral plan, just so your loved ones know that is the type of funeral you'd prefer.

At its essence, cremation is an alternative to the more traditional concept of burial. Just like for burials, a wide range of coffins can be used and the service is usually very similar to what precedes a burial. You can have a "Committal Service", where a traditional church-type service takes place first, and then the coffin is moved to one of our cemeteries for cremation. Or you can have a full funeral service and cremation at one of our chapels in Glasnevin, Dardistown or Newlands Cross. Some choose to opt for a "Non-Service" cremation, where the Funeral Director simply brings the coffin privately to one of our cemeteries and we carry out the cremation.

Yes, music can be played at the service, up to a maximum of two tracks. Your Funeral Director will ask for links (e.g. a Spotify or iTunes link) to the specific piece(s) of music you have chosen as part of your plan, and then provide those links to us, along with details on when during the service you wanted them to be played.

Ashes are usually available to your loved ones a couple of days after the cremation service. They can be given to them either in a standard urn or in a more specific, elaborate urn that you or they may have chosen.
At this point, loved ones are often unsure what to do with the ashes, but by pre-planning and capturing your preferences, you can take this pressure off them.
Nowadays, there are so many options for what to do with the ashes – it really depends on what feels right to you:

• You might wish for your loved ones to keep your ashes at home, and they may be keen to keep you close like this
• It’s becoming increasingly popular to bury your ashes in an existing family grave, alongside loved ones who have been buried there in the past
• We also provide specific Gardens of Remembrance or Columbarium Walls specifically for ashes in our cemeteries 

• Having your ashes pressed into a vinyl album
• Turning them into jewellery
• Putting them into special walking sticks that scatter the ashes as they’re walked
• Planting a tree with the ashes at the roots in a biodegradable container.

This is usually possible, but depends to some extent on the exact location and nature of the grave. Contact one of our helpful team with the details of the grave you have in mind and they will be able to help you.