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Sunday 15 April 2012

Webcast Funeral


Millions attended Whitney Houston's funeral and listened to "I will always love you" as her body left the local church. After Getty Images photographer Chris Hondros was killed covering a Libyan uprising, thousands attended his memorial service. The majority of the audience at each of these funerals attended them virtually.


While very new to Ireland, streaming funerals live around the globe could become a very important part of our future. Figures show emigration of Irish people is over 40,000 a year and a lot of these people will stay illegally in the countries they migrate to. Australia alone now has 1,075 Irish people living there unlawfully, a 24 percent increase from last year. In doing this, it means they can’t leave to return home for the funeral of a loved one.


Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have also made us much more comfortable with sharing intimate details about ourselves online. Many deaths and funerals are reported, commented on, tweeted, recorded and posted online already.


The advantages of streaming are also a form of family memorial that can be preserved on a DVD as part of a family's oral history. It's an archive for future unborn generations. For sudden deaths, streaming can also foster a communal mourning experience, in digital form.

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