We are the national charity addressing dying, death and bereavement in Ireland.
Our vision is an Ireland where people facing dying, death and bereavement are provided with the information, care and support that they need.
22/11/2025
✨ We’re grateful to share a message from Niamh Finucane of St Francis Hospice.
Niamh speaks about supporting children and families through illness, death and bereavement. She also speaks about the importance of giving children space, honesty, and age-appropriate information. Her insight is a reminder that when adults feel unsure, children often need us most.
💛 Thank you to Niamh and the team at St Francis Hospice for the vital work they do.
A few common myths about children’s grief, and the facts that really matter. 💛
For more information on supporting bereaved children, visit 👉 childhoodbereavement.ie
20/11/2025
Today we’re sharing two wonderful reading pieces to help children navigate one of their first experiences of loss — the death of a family pet.
💛 A message from Patrice Karst, author of The Invisible String. Her beautiful series includes The Invisible Leash, which offers comfort to children after the loss of a beloved pet.
🐾 For many children, this is their first encounter with grief — and books like The Invisible Leash can help us find the right words.
📖 This year, the Invisible Leash was translated into Braille.
💛 Psychotherapist, Clinical Supervisor, Lecturer and mam, Margaret Bowen, has written a reflective blog about pet loss and those early conversations about death with children — including her own family’s story of “brother dog.”
A huge thank you to Kathryn Thomas and all at Dublin's Q102 welcoming our fundraiser Emma Rock onto Morning Show with Kathryn Thomas today to talk about the Never Forgotten Night Walk.
We are so grateful for the opportunity to share why this special event means so much to people across Ireland, and how it helps us continue supporting those facing end-of-life and bereavement.
Thank you Kathryn and Dublin's Q102 helping us spread the word 💛
If you’d like to join us for this year’s Never Forgotten Night Walk, you can find out more at https://ow.ly/YEUm50XtXnf
19/11/2025
📚 We want to highlight and celebrate Children's Books Ireland thoughtful and inclusive new Loss and Grief Reading List.
🤝 We were delighted to connect with Ruth, Emma and the team in advance of BCAW, and we've really enjoyed discovering contemporary authors who are exploring children’s grief with such care.
📚 Continuing with this year's BCAW focus on books, we have a message from another of our favourite authors, John Dougherty.
💛 His book, 'A Hare-Shaped Hole', is a modern classic. We love how it explores emotional expression and the gentle ways children continue bonds, two essential aspects of supporting bereaved children.
🙏 Thank you so much, John, for sharing your wisdom with us.
This session is aimed at parents, carers, and family members supporting children who are experiencing grief.
We will share information to help parents and family members understand how children and young people grieve, and explore some of the common responses and reactions.
We understand that conversations with children about death and dying are hard. We will offer some guidance and support to have these conversations.
There will be an opportunity for questions to be submitted anonymously via the registration form.
17/11/2025
It’s Bereaved Children’s Awareness Week!
This year’s theme for Bereaved Children's Awareness Week, Children Grieve Too, is a vital reminder that children experience loss deeply and with the right support, they can learn to live with their grief in healthy and hopeful ways.
This week we have a special focus on books as tools to help children and young people understand and express their grief, empowering families to have these important conversations.
ICBN have also developed the Recommended Reading page, and now you can easily search for recommendations based on author, theme, accessibility, and age.
Grief can feel soft, sharp, and everything in between, and today’s reflection captures that so beautifully. This week’s poem is “Grief is strange” by delicate.dusty_diary, (Instagram) a reminder of how loss can tug at us long after the moment we say goodbye.
If this resonates with you today, please know you’re not alone. Our Bereavement Support Line is here to listen, with care and compassion.
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Irish Hospice Foundation was set up in 1986 to fund and develop specific hospice services. Since then our work has expanded to address the needs of people dying in hospitals, at home and in other care settings. We work to provide equity in access to palliative care services for all patients with life limiting illness. We also promote discussion of a broad range of issues related to dying, death and bereavement, in order to identify what matters most to Irish people at the end of life and how best to address their concerns.
Our mission is to achieve dignity, comfort and choice for all people facing end of life.
Death and dying affects each and every one of us. Every year, 30,000 people die in Ireland and up to 300,000 are newly bereaved. Irish Hospice Foundation strives for the best care at end of life and in bereavement for these people and practical support for their loved ones.
THIS IS SOME OF WHAT WE DELIVER:
Hospice Home Care for Children: We have invested €2.5 million in providing Children’s Outreach Nurses all around Ireland, a Consultant Paediatrician with a special interest in palliative care and training for healthcare staff. All of these programmes are delivered in partnership with the HSE.
Education and research: Every year nearly 3,000 people take part in our training programmes and we estimate that over 50,000 people have received training in aspects of good end-of-life care and bereavement since we were established. We also fund pioneering research on end-of-life and palliative care issues across Ireland.
Nurses for Night Care: This free national service for people with illnesses other than cancer enables more people fulfill their wish to die at home. This service costs €500,000 per annum.
Hospice Friendly Hospitals: This programme aims to improve end-of-life care in hospitals. The learning from this programme is now being applied in residential care settings for older people.
Innovation in primary care and in people’s homes: We support developments in these settings so that better end-of- life care can be delivered everywhere and for everyone.
Innovation in new areas: We are committed to nurturing new areas. In 2013 we were able to attract philanthropic funding for an ambitious national programme, ‘Changing Minds’, which aims to promote excellence in end-of-life care for people living with dementia.
Advocacy: Through advocacy and awareness-raising, we work to promote a better understanding of end-of-life care issues and to influence decision-makers to make services more widely available to all who need them. We actively promote discussion of issues related to dying, death and bereavement in order to identify Irish people’s concerns about these matters and consider how they might be addressed.
