WHEN the pipes eventually call, it is the dying wish of any true Irish rover, wherever in the world they lived, to be buried back at home.
But the chances of making that final journey back to the dear old land across the Irish Sea is about to become much harder. Aer Lingus is to stop flying coffins between Britain and Ireland.
At present, the airline flies some 1,200 bodies home for burial each year but it wants to become a cost-efficient, no-frills operator and, next January, will drop its unprofitable short-haul cargo service.
The decision has angered Britain’s large but ageing Irish community. “Many people feel absolutely betrayed,” Sally Mulready, of the London Irish Elders’ Forum, said. “Most emigrants leave Ireland with the intention of going home one day, but while some do not achieve that, their next best wish is to be buried there.
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“Lots of elderly people have taken out insurance and put aside savings for their return to Ireland when they die. They have always travelled by Aer Lingus, even when it was expensive to do so 20 years ago. Now they are going to have to look at longer and more costly routes, such as by sea, which will cause unnecessary anguish to relatives.”
Most of the coffins transported by Aer Lingus contain people who died in Britain. The average cost is £290.
The Irish Government, which owns 85 per cent of the airline, is studying options for its future, including privatisation. As part of an efficiency drive, it is introducing a new aircraft, the BA320 Airbus, which has limited cargo capa-city. Cargo — including coffins — will still be carried on transatlantic routes.
“We are switching to a type of aircraft on all our short-haul routes and that means greater capacity for passengers but less space for cargo,” the airline said.
Gus Nichols, of the Irish Association of Funeral Directors, said that families would face higher costs and harder journeys to fulfil a dying person’s wish to be buried in Ireland. “The irony is not lost on Irish people that we may have to depend on a British airline such as British Midland to bring our dead home,” he said.