Kildare company creates urn towers to bring down cost of funerals

A Kildare company has come up with a way for relations to care for the growing number of post-cremation remains.

Galway County Council is piloting an initiative by Clane-based Urn Towers, which was set up by Limerick man Stephen Power.

A key question for bereaved families is what to do with post-cremation remains. The graveyard in Renville, Oranmore, Galway, which is managed by Galway County Council, is piloting a project which will allow families to inter remains in a new-style memorial called an Urn Tower Vault.

Despite the growing popularity of cremation, most of the graveyards in County Galway and elsewhere do not facilitate ash-only interments, said the company.

Urn Towers has created an Urn Tower Vault, which allows the interring of cremated remains in graveyards.

“The Vault, which houses an urn holding a loved one’s cremated remains, facilitates an evolution in our burial tradition,” said Mr Power.

The urns holding the remains are placed inside the family vault. Each Urn Tower Vault can be extended, if needed, to hold more family members’ urns. Renville Cemetery in Oranmore will be the first Galway graveyard to offer this option. Once the trial period is completed, it is hoped that the Vaults will be available at other Galway graveyards and, eventually, throughout the country.

Stephen Power of Urn Towers

Mr Power, who has lived in Clane for 20 years, and has his products manufactured by Kent in Wexford, said cremation numbers are growing each year in Ireland.

Currently they are running at around 25 to 30% of deaths nationally. Cremation numbers for Kildare in 2017/2018/2019 were 32/44/100, respectively.

He said the vast majority of graveyards in Ireland are managed by the local council and do not offer ash-only interment options for families.

Crematoriums exist only in Dublin (4) and Clare, Cork and Cavan (one each). The current options for placement of ash-only remains include putting them in existing graves, or, buying a new ash plot or a full burial plot or space on a Columbarium wall.

The company was founded in 2016 with the initial concept of creating urn memorials for deceased loved ones. The company has been supported by Enterprise Ireland and the Kildare LEO .

In 2017 it developed a range of memorial options — companion memorials — for pet cremations and home use.

In 2018, it developed Celtic urns — individually handcrafted cremation urns.

Mr Power said that the benefit of Urn Towers for families include individual memorials which can be extended if needed to hold more urns.

The Urn Tower remains above ground, which allows them to move with you should that need ever arise

Mr Power also said that it costs significantly less than a traditional funeral and it can be placed at home.

From the point of view of facility providers, he said, it is modular so that can be placed in many graveyards cost effectively with little or no large infrastructure costs.

It can be placed above ground, allowing for placement on ground previously considered unsuitable for interments, thus extending the operating life of a cemetery.

Mr Power, who worked in the IT sector with major companies before setting up Urn Towers in 2016, said the company is currently working with several local councils in the implementation of the Urn Tower Memorial Vault in graveyards in Dublin, Limerick, Clare, Monaghan, Galway.

He said he approached Kildare County Council about four years but has not got any response from it, so far. “There seems to be a lot of investment in infrastructure like roads, water etc but little or none in where or how people can be buried,” he said.

There are two main business models or approaches by the company.

One is to approach a local authority and work with it to put their products in a graveyard. A family can do this by going through the undertaker or go directly to the council.

A second model is for a council to provide the company with a piece of ground and let Urn Towers develop the area concerned.

There are 200 graveyards in Kildare but only about two to three which allow ash to be interred.

Mr Power sees the future in cremation, both for pets and humans.

He said that if he, himself, were to be laid to rest following cremation in Clane now he would have to buy a grave in which to put ashes.

There are currently around 32,000 deaths a year in Ireland and 7,000 of them are cremations. In the UK, 75% of all deaths result in cremations, amounting to around 600,000 cremations a year.

Urn Towers is also in discussions with several large funeral service providers in the US. One is StoneMor, which owns over 300 cemeteries there.

Urn Towers is also involved in the pet market, which is said, is worth $98 billion (billion, not million) in the United States.

For more information, see www.urntowers.com.