21 January 2025
By Elaine Murphy
elaine@TheCork.ie
- New UCC study shows how digital tools shaped Irish mourning experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The integration of digital media into everyday living has affected mourning in Ireland.
- Traditional Irish mourning rituals remain strongly established in social and community aspects, but technology now plays an important and accepted role.
Technology is now an established part of mourning rituals in Ireland and people have found meaningful ways to use it despite its limitations, a new study has found.
Conducted by researchers at University College Cork (UCC), it is one of the first studies to investigate how people experienced the use of technology in mourning rituals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study reports that people found live-streamed funerals challenging and deeply unfulfilling during the COVID-19 restrictions, but there is growing recognition of the established role that the live-streaming of funerals and the use of online condolences (such as on RIP.ie) now have in the social dimension of mourning in Ireland.
Through exploring how the rapid introduction of digital tools into Irish mourning rituals was experienced, the research provides insights to inform the future design and use of end-of-life digital tools and services.
Unfulfilled mourning rituals
The study indicates that mourning rituals during COVID-19 pandemic generated a sense of unfulfillment, particularly regarding physical and social rituals assisting bereavement which digital alternatives could not satisfy.
“In the Irish experience of mourning, there is a rich history of ‘a good send-off’, with rituals dating back centuries still remaining today. The loss of mourning rituals and gestures of support such as handshaking, hugging, house visits and physical gift giving were mentioned as being particularly missed,” Professor Luigina Ciolfi, Professor of Human Computer Interaction at UCC College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences said.
“Our findings indicate that the experience of technology surrounding mourning is complex and still evolving. Participants faced a series of emotional and social challenges as they were managing these changed ways of participating in rituals and showing support to the bereaved during the pandemic,” study co-author Ava McCoy, graduate of the BA Applied Psychology at UCC, said.
Grief and the digital landscape of mourning
The study found that the use of digital tools for mourning during COVID-19 restrictions was a challenging experience which yielded some positive outcomes.
Participants acknowledged the importance and utility of digitally-mediated experiences, such as participation in live-streamed funerals and in online books of condolences, when alternatives were and are not available
Following the lifting of restrictions, there is consensus in favour of the continued, sensitive integration of digital mourning tools into established mourning practices, blending recently established practices into long-lived ones.
The continued use of live-streamed funerals and online books of condolences in collaboration with traditional practices is seen not only as useful, but also meaningful. The online obituary platform RIP.ie is now fully a part of how people participate in mourning, and provides online books of condolences, links to digital in memoriams such as donations and cards, which have become commonplace beside traditional Mass cards.
“At the time of its acquisition in 2024 by the Irish Times Group, RIP.ie reportedly receives 60 million page views a month, with the population of Ireland at just over 5.2 million. It clearly shows an evolution in how such social ties surrounding the end of life are and will be maintained in contemporary Irish society, including technological ones,” Prof. Ciolfi said.
Importance of communal mourning
The study found the importance of communal aspects of mourning and of the shared traditional practices remain enduring, but that using technology also plays a meaningful part, especially as people have become used to these technologies and what they can be used for. An important finding of the study is that attending funerals online can become a mindful and highly meaningful experience for people who are unable to attend in person.
Prof. Ciolfi said: “Digital tools and systems are expected to remain part of mourning practices in the foreseeable future. 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. Further human-computer interaction research is needed to address this complex landscape,” Prof. Ciolfi said.