{"id":646994,"date":"2026-08-20T09:28:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/646994\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T09:28:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T09:28:14","slug":"dublins-main-mortuary-operating-at-double-capacity-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/646994\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin\u2019s main mortuary operating at double capacity \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Dublin\u2019s main mortuary in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin-9\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/dublin-9\/\">Whitehall<\/a> is  operating at double capacity, with 500 autopsies performed  to date in 2026 \u2013 although the facility\u2019s annual capacity is for 400.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Fintan Cooney, president of the Irish Association of Funeral Directors has warned that staff at Dublin City Mortuary and the Coroner\u2019s Office were working in conditions that were \u201cless than ideal\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Speaking on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/newstalk-radio\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/newstalk-radio\/\">Newstalk Breakfast<\/a> with Anton Savage, Cooney said  the mortuary in Whitehall in Dublin was originally opened as a temporary measure when a facility that was planned for Marino did not go ahead. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThe capacity is for approximately 400 autopsies per annum, but I understand that already this year they\u2019ve conducted over 500,\u201d Cooney said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The number of hospitals in Dublin that conduct postmortems on behalf of the coroner has reduced in recent years, which was adding to the problem, he said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult situation because, as you can imagine, if somebody has to undergo an autopsy at Dublin City Mortuary, it\u2019s probably because the death has occurred in sudden, unexpected or possibly tragic circumstances,\u201d Cooney said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAnd to have then a significant delay in the release of that person into the care of the funeral director so the family can have a funeral is going to just add further to their already significant grief and trauma.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Cooney called for plans for a proper mortuary facility in Dublin to be put into operation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dublin\u2019s main mortuary in Whitehall is operating at double capacity, with 500 autopsies performed to date in 2026&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646995,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,39541,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,5,5287,7,8],"class_list":["post-646994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-dublin-9","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-newstalk-radio","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646994"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646994\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}