Smoke gets in your eyes
On tomorrow's programme, we'll have a segment looking at the future of cremation. Apparently, Belfast has just eight years of burial space left and we're all going to have to seriously consider cremations when our ticket's up.
Currently, Northern Ireland has only one crematorium, at Roselawn, and cremation accounts for only 20 per cent of our funerals each year (in England, the figure is 80 per cent). But is cremation as environmentally-friendly as so many seem to think? Why do we continue to embalm in almost every case of death in Northern Ireland? And why do some religious groups (including the Free Presbyterian Church) oppose cremation on theological grounds? These and other questions are explored in our discussion tomorrow.
This is just a taste of things to come on Monday night when I present "Sorry for your Trouble", a new documentary on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One NI which examines our changing attitude to death and dying. It's produced by Michael Beattie, who wrote about his experience of making the documentary in for the Belfast Telegraph this week.
It's an hour-long programme (Monday, 10.35 pm, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ One NI) which includes our visit to Roselawn -- the first time a film crew has been permitted behind the scenes. While there, we discovered that some families really do request the song "Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" at services. I can't find the original version from the 1933 musical Roberta, so here's the 1959 version by . Take it away . . .
p.s., I'm with whoever it was who said, "When my ticket's up, I want a new ticket."
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