My dad ('52) retired to Ireland with my mom (from Ireland) and he wanted to be cremated. This is how it went down there.

A few days after he passed there was a viewing at the funeral home in the late afternoon for a couple hours. People we knew and many I had never seen before in my life all came by to pay their respects. Afterward a few of us carried the casket to the hearse. All the family and close friends then walked down the road following the hearse to the cathedral. Interesting tradition is that cars going the other way will stop (if safe) to pay their respects as the hearse goes by. When we got to the Cathedral a few of us carried the casket in. Then we had a normal Catholic funeral ceremony. The funeral home kept the casket over night as it would be transported to the crematorium in Dublin (3 hours across the country) the next day.

The next day, the immediate family and close friends followed the hearse to an overlook at the Sligo-Leitrim border and we all got out to pay final respects. Then the hearse continued on down the rocky road to Dublin.

Dad's body was cremated along with the casket. He was kind of pissed about that when they were doing funeral planning. He didn't want to waste money and resources on a casket that was just going to get torched and was trying to opt for a cheap pine box.

The funeral home got the remains back within a couple weeks. A few months later in the summer I traveled back over with my wife and kids for a spreading of the ashes. I was shocked at home much cremains there were. It was quite a large plastic container. Dad was 6'2.

We split the ashes up into a few small containers. Dad's family was from Sweden and Denmark and he wanted a Viking funeral. Some of the ashes went into a small decorative paper box and we put that in a wooden model Viking ship. My uncle arranged for us to get out on Sligo bay with a couple boats (Coast Guard and local fishing guide) - a few laws were broken as part of this whole adventure. We put the Viking ship on a pine wreath and gave it a good soaking of lighter fluid. We lit it and pushed it out. It burned for a bit while we played The Spirit of Aggieland and a few more of his favorite songs from Willie Nelson, John Denver, etc. It never fully burned as the waves got it. It also wouldn't sink so the boat ran it over once for good measure. We all had a good laugh at the sort of ****-show it had become to get that model boat and cremains box to sink. The majority of the ashes we just poured overboard into the bay.

The rest of the small containers were spread around other places. My sister spread some on a mountain top near my parents home in Sligo. A small amount was buried at the plot where my mom will eventually be buried. I brought some back and spread them on Surfside beach where we would always go when I was little. Dad loved walking on beaches. I also buried a small amount at Ft. Sam cemetery with his parents.

That was 12 years ago. I miss him and need some tissues.


TLDR: Dad was cremated in the casket and we spread him around different places.