Issuing authority and document: Consent to take a body out of Ireland is given by the coroner; according to the Polish embassy, the coroner's consent is also needed for ashes. The Polish certificate is issued by the Polish embassy in Dublin.
Transport: By a specialised vehicle for carrying bodies, or by plane. We agree the route and the handover place in Poland with the family.
Timing: We confirm the timing once we have the documents. The Polish Act provides that the starosta (district head) and the consul issue their documents at the latest within 3 days of the application (Article 14(5) of the Act on Cemeteries and Burial of the Dead); in practice time is also needed for the sanepid's opinion and delivering the originals, and the time needed to deal with matters in the country of death depends on the authorities there.
Price: We will quote the price once we know the details.

The procedure in Ireland

Ireland is not a party to the Strasbourg Agreement on the Transfer of Corpses. Taking a body out of the country requires the coroner's consent, and according to the Polish embassy in Dublin, the coroner's consent for export is needed for ashes as well. A body may be transported only by a specialised funeral home.

Ireland and Northern Ireland are two different systems

Deaths in Ireland are handled by the Polish Embassy in Dublin. If your loved one died in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, the documents are accepted by the Consulate General in Belfast and British rules apply, not Irish ones. That is why we first establish on which side of the border the death occurred.

In Ireland the coroner issues an interim death certificate, and the full death certificate is collected at the local Civil Registration Service office. The embassy recommends emailing scans of the documents before submitting originals, because it speeds things up, and asks for particular care with dates and the spelling of names and places. A wrong date can stall the whole application, so we check every document before it reaches the consul. The embassy also states that it does not cover financial obligations or decide on the family's behalf about burial or cremation. The decisions are yours, and we organise the rest.

Documents for the Polish embassy

For a body: the starosta's permit, the death certificate or the coroner's interim death certificate, the coroner's consent for export, the coroner's certificate that the death was not related to an infectious disease, and a statement from the funeral home that the coffin is metal, soldered, with a layer of absorbent material, in a wooden crate. For ashes: the coroner's consent for taking the ashes out of the country, the cremation certificate, a notarised statement from the funeral home about the sealed urn, the death certificate and the starosta's permit.

On the Polish side two documents are always needed: a permit from the starosta (district head) responsible for the place of burial, and then a certificate from the Polish consul, issued on the basis of that permit and the death certificate (Article 14(4) of the Act on Cemeteries and Burial of the Dead). The same documents are needed for an urn with ashes.

Frequently asked questions

Is the coroner's consent needed to take an urn out of Ireland?

Yes, according to the Polish embassy in Dublin, the coroner's consent is needed to take ashes out of Ireland.

Do Irish documents have to be translated?

According to the Polish embassy, no translation is required for the consul. The starosta's office in Poland may ask for a sworn translation of the death certificate.

How long does it take to bring a body home from Ireland?

We confirm the timing once we have the documents. The Act provides that the starosta and the consul issue their documents at the latest within 3 days of the application (Article 14(5) of the Act on Cemeteries and Burial of the Dead); in practice time is also needed for the sanepid's opinion, delivering the originals, formalities in the country of death and the transport itself.

Other countries

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Repatriation of a Body from Ireland to Poland