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The Irish have a long-established tradition of giving someone a good send-off at a funeral – but this isn’t always the case, as Nina Shelton can attest.
Her family will only receive the remains of her father Pat Motherway in the coming weeks – almost two years after he died in 2023, following a long illness.
The 81-year-old asked that his body be donated to scientific research after a lifetime of chronic asthma. He had also suffered with pneumonia, shingles, bronchitis and Covid.
In 2010, he told his family he did not want to be buried, opting instead for cremation after his body was used to further medical research.
Shelton’s father “surmised that someone should get something out of it when he was gone”, she said.
He knew the Royal College of Surgeons (RCSI) paid for essentials such as burial, cremation, services and a coffin in such cases, so “in an ultimate act of frugality, donated his body to science”, said Shelton.
With no physical remains to inter at the time of the Dubliner’s death, there was no official funeral. Instead, the retirement village where he spent his final years held a small memorial service.
This, says Shelton, who was estranged from her father, added to the “strangeness” of the situation.
“I received a phone call from my brother to say that our father had died, but there was nothing to organise and no one [else] to inform,” she said.
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“The first few weeks were very confusing, accepting what had happened and reconciling my feelings of never having resolved our differences.”
She said she struggled with “the finality”, and took a long time to come to terms with his death.
“It is now nearly two years since he died and we get his body back next month. We always knew it would take this length of time as I think they are oversubscribed [with donations for research], but it still caused a jolt when the letter arrived in the post,” she said.
His family has signed the relevant paperwork and a funeral director will collect his remains from the RCSI and bring him to Glasnevin in Dublin, where his remains will be cremated.
“The college will pay for everything,” she said.
The RCSI says that each year it receives the remains of about 100 people who have dedicated their bodies to research. While the period between donation and the remains being returned may seem long to loved ones, it is necessary in order to allow enough time for research.
“It takes between one and three years from donation to release,” said a spokesperson for the RCSI.
“This is to allow for the remains to be studied for both teaching and research.”
The college says when the body is ready to be released, it writes to the family, which chooses cremation or burial in the medical school’s plot, or private family interment, and makes preferred arrangements with undertakers.
Trinity College Dublin (TCD) also accepts donations for medical research, and every two years it holds an act of remembrance and thanksgiving ceremony in the College Chapel to “remember all donors and to thank all their families”.
“This year it was held in March, and over 200 members of 60 invited families attended,” said a TCD spokesperson. “The ecumenical service is led by the college chaplains and features the chapel choir. It provides an opportunity for people to come together to remember and celebrate their loved ones’ intentions to help others and to improve medical care in Ireland.”
From January 2024 to January 2025, TCD received 18 donations. In the past year it had inquiries from more than 100 people wishing to become donors, with 85 of those going on to register.
“This number changes every year, but is consistently around 80-100 each year,” the spokesperson added.
The RCSI said people interested in donating their body for medical education and research should contact one of the Irish medical schools with an anatomical gifts programme, which list also includes University of Galway, University College Cork and University College Dublin.
While donating your body to science is not a very common practice in Ireland, Shelton said the experience with her father had made her realise it “can do a lot of good” and that she may follow in his footsteps.
“I don’t know anyone else who has been through this, but it is nice to know that the surgeons of the future gained some of their life skills and training because of my dad,” she said.
“It makes me think that I would like to do that too – it seems wasteful [for remains] to be buried or burned when there could be a final bit of use.”