Máiría Cahill: RIP.ie can profit without burdening the bereaved

When 89-year-old Mary Regan died in a Carlow nursing home at the start of December, funeral director Rory Healy appealed to people online to attend her church service, given she had no living relatives in the area. Word of mouth spread across the internet and people responded. Less than 24 hours later, hundreds of people showed up, including a local primary school class, in a lovely act of collective humanity.

There is something incredibly poignant not just in an elderly woman whose relatives have all predeceased her, but also that her own death came a few short weeks before Christmas. So well done to the Carlow community for reminding all that kindness and community spirit still exist..