UndertakerMartina featuredindocumentary
DUNDALK native Martina Burns features in the documentary ‘ The Funeral Director’ which won the award for Specialist Factual programme in the recent Royal Television Society awards.
The programme, which was made before the COVID-19 pandemic, offers an unprecedented view into a world which most people never think about until their is a bereavement in their family..
Martina works in Ballina since moving there almost twenty years ago to train with funeral director David McGowan who shared insights into his profession with programme maker Gillian Marsh.
For as long as she can remember, Martina wanted to be an undertaker and embalmer. ‘It was that or running the family shop,’ she says. Once her parents Johnny and Ann sold the family’s landmark grocery shop at the corner of Chapel Street, Martina headed west.
A past-pupil of Realt na Mara and St Vincent’s Secondary School, she has fond memories of helping out in the shop, of the banter and craic with customers.
This ability to build up a rapport with strangers has stood her in good stead in her work as she meets people when they are at their most vulnerable and she is
‘Once Mam and Dad sold the shop I got in touch with David and moved to Ballina,’ she recalls.
Martina completed a twelve month FAS course which led to her qualifying as an embalmer and funeral director through The Irish College of Funeral Directing and Embalming and the European Association of Embalmers. After she qualified, David offered her a job in the family run business which has funeral homes in Ballina and Sligo.
‘David gave me a chance and I am very grateful for that. I love the work. It can be tough. You have your good days and bad days, but it’s very rewarding,’ she says.
‘We have a good team, we all work together. David is very good at helping us. If he sees that a funeral has got to you, he will talk you through it.’
Martina is a long term member of the Professional Embalmers Association of Ireland, and served as a board member in the past.
The COVID-19 pandemic has obviously made their work ‘a bit tougher’ but she finds consolation in the fact that her work as an embalmer means families have the option to view a deceased person who has passed away which is a great comfort to the bereaved.
The restrictions around the number of mourners who can attend a funeral has added to the grief being experienced by those who have been bereaved.
‘It’s tough having to tell a family that they can only have ten people at a funeral.’
She sees her work as a funeral director as guiding people through the process of grieving and giving them the space to talk.
Now that the great Irish tradition of mourning and having wakes has been put on hold, she finds that more families are opting to have their loved ones repose in a funeral home as well as at home so that friends and neighbours can pay their respects.
Martina can be seen going about her work in the acclaimed documentary which came about after McGowan Funeral Directors looked after the funeral of the father of film maker Gillian Marsh of G Marsh, TV Productions
After own experience of death and organising a funeral, Gillian asked David if he would agree to allowing cameras to follow him and to give people an insight into the important role which funeral directors play in people’s lives at a time when they are broken hearted and vulnerable.
In normal times Martina would travel home to Dundalk on a regular basis. Her Dad and sister Geraldine are still living in town, her mother died four years ago, while her brother John is in Northern Ireland and her sister Anita lives in England.
‘I do miss getting home but I like Ballina. It’s a lovely town. The people are awfully friendly, it’s like home from home.’