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BURIAL (IRELAND) ACT 1868

BURIAL (IRELAND) ACT 1868 - LONG TITLE

An Act to amend the Law which regulates the Burials of Persons in
Ireland not belonging to the Established Church.{1}
[31st July 1868]
Preamble rep. by SLR 1893

BURIAL (IRELAND) ACT 1868 - SECT 1
Where burial of person not belonging to United Church of England
and Ireland takes place in burial ground of such Church, priest,
&c. of other denomination may perform service.

1. Whenever any person who at the time of his or her death shall
not have been a member of and in communion with the United Church
of England and Ireland shall be buried, as of right, within any
churchyard or graveyard the soil or freehold whereof shall be vested
in any rector, vicar, or other incumbent, it shall be lawful for
the priest or minister of the religious denomination to which such
person shall have belonged at the time of his or her death, and
he is hereby empowered, to attend such burial, and to read such
prayers or perform such burial service at the grave in such
churchyard or graveyard as is usual and customary at burials of
persons belonging to such religious denomination; and any person
wilfully obstructing such prayers or burial service shall be deemed
guilty of a misdemeanor: Provided always, that such prayers shall
not be read or such burial service performed either wholly or in
part during the time of the celebration of divine service or any
rite or ceremony of the said United Church or during the
catechising or other instruction of children or young persons in the
church or chapel to which such churchyard or graveyard belongs, nor
within half an hour before the commencement or after the conclusion
of any such celebration, catechising, or instruction, nor during the
time at which the incumbent or minister of such church or chapel,
or any other minister or other ecclesiastical person, shall be
performing the burial service in such churchyard or graveyard, nor
during the performance of any other burial service therein: Provided
always, that nothing in this Act shall confer any right of burial
where no such right already exists, or shall affect the rights or
privileges of any ordinary, rector, vicar, or other incumbent.

BURIAL (IRELAND) ACT 1868 - SECT 2
Prohibition of interference with celebration of divine service.

2. Nothing herein contained shall authorize or justify any
interference with or interruption of the celebration of divine
service in the church or chapel to which such churchyard or
graveyard may be attached or belong, or the obstruction of persons
going thereto or returning therefrom.

BURIAL (IRELAND) ACT 1868 - SECT 3
Notice to be given of the time at which it is proposed that the
burial shall take place.

3. Such priest or minister who may purpose to attend such burial
shall, twenty-four hours before the reading of such prayers or the
performance of such burial service, serve or cause to be served
upon the person appointed by the rector, vicar, or other incumbent
of the parish to receive such notices a notice in writing, signed
with his name, stating the name and late residence of the person
about to be buried, and the hour at which he purposes to read
such prayers or perform such burial service; and if there be no
celebration, catechising, or instruction already appointed to take
place, or other burial service appointed to be performed at the
time specified in the notice, of which he is to be then and there
informed, he shall read such prayers or perform such service at the
time for which he has given notice; but if any celebration,
catechising, instruction, or other burial service shall have been
already appointed, then he shall appoint some other convenient time
before or after such celebration, catechising, instruction, or other
burial service.

BURIAL (IRELAND) ACT 1868 - SECT 4
Lord Lieutenant in Council may exempt certain churchyards.

4. And whereas many parish churches have of late years been erected
on a new site, having attached to them small churchyards given or
purchased for the sole use of persons attending the worship of the
church, and in size proportioned to the wants of the congregation,
leaving the old churchyard for the general use of the parishioners:
And whereas many perpetual cures and district parishes have been
erected of late years, and churches built in them, with small
graveyards intended solely for the use of the congregations of such
churches: it shall be lawful for the Lord Lieutenant in Council, on
application from the incumbents of any such church, to declare the
same to be exempt, and which exemption shall be published in the
[Belfast Gazette] and thereupon such churchyards shall be exempted
from the operation of this Act.

BURIAL (IRELAND) ACT 1868 - SECT 5
Extent of Act.

5. This Act shall extend to Ireland only.