Once again this week I sat at my desk, switched on the laptop, turned off the mobile phone and attended an online funeral. Afterwards, I signed an online book of condolences. This is the only way most of us can pay our respects in the face of death, that great leveller.
The days of brushing down my black coat, checking the venue on Google Maps and squeezing into a crammed church are gone. As for the sociable aftermath where you’d catch up with old friends and relatives, perhaps have something to eat and drink together, that’s a distant memory. The webcam funeral is only one among a host of disruptions imposed by the pandemic but it has to be one of the most unsettling – it upends the funeral etiquette that’s a cultural imperative for Irish people.