Suicide increase. (Highest suicide rate recorded in Ireland)

Sceala Philosopher

Bertie Ahern, wondered during the height of the property bubble boom in 2007 , why those “cribbing and moaning” about a coming downturn did not commit suicide.
That selfish little man's ignorance to the upset and further trauma he caused to victims of suicide, especially the families and friends, has been worn around Ahern's brass neck ever since.

Highest suicide rate recorded in Ireland
Ireland has seen a rise in suicide rates, according to Central Statistics Office of Ireland. Reports show that suicide is particularly among young men in rural areas facing a bleak future without work and laden with debt.
Since the end of Ireland's good times three years ago, the country's incidence of death by self-harm, already one of the highest in Europe, has risen by 25% to the highest annual rate ever recorded in Ireland. Provisional figures for the first quarter of 2010 show that just as many died last year.

The stark statistics “only go some way towards conveying the devastation caused by suicide in communities the length and breadth of Ireland,” according to Angela Kerins, chief executive of RehabCare, a non-governmental organization dedicated to helping people achieve their potential.
“More people are dying each year by suicide than on our roads and suicide is now the biggest cause of death among young men in the 15-24 age group."
Youth suicide in Ireland is the fifth highest in Europe, after Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland, according to the most recent study of the phenomenon, carried out by a joint committee of the Irish parliament in 2004.

The incidence of self-harm is highest in rural Ireland, with counties like Offaly recording twice the number of suicides as Dublin. The collapse of the construction industry has hit such counties hard, leaving developments of half-finished houses, empty retail parks and long lines at unemployment offices.
After examining at a Jan. 20 hearing five cases of suicide of young and middle-aged men, the County Offaly coroner, Brian Mahon said, “This is just an example of the rampant and really serious situation in Ireland, and particularly in rural areas.” The five cases included a 32-year-old carpenter and father of one facing repossession of his house and a 35-year-old single man with a drug problem.
With abuse of alcohol cited as a factor in four out of 10 suicides, a National Task Force on Suicide recommended in 1998 that drink should be made less available and more expensive, since then beers and spirits have become cheaper and more accessible. The official figures for suicide could be underestimated, this study concluded, as one in 10 road fatalities involving single occupant vehicles is believed to be a deliberate act of self-destruction.

Suicide rates in Northern Ireland have also risen sharply, especially among young people. Belfast was shocked at the end of January when an 11-year-old girl and a 13-year-old boy took their lives in unrelated circumstances within a 24-hour period.
Local newspapers splashed on the deaths, while politicians, including west Belfast MP and leader of Sinn Féin, Gerry Adams, declared the situation a "crisis" and vowed to act.
Suicide rates have been rising markedly in Northern Ireland over the past decade. According to the Public Health Agency (PHA), after a period of relatively static figures in the latter half of the last century, between 1999 and 2008 rates of suicide in the north of Ireland increased by 64%. Most of the rise was attributable to young men in the 15 to 34 age group. A large proportion was concentrated in disadvantaged areas and, in particular, north and west Belfast. In 2002, 76% of all suicides in the north of Ireland were male, and 60% were between 15 and 34 years old. By 2008, the latest year for which a reliable breakdown of the statistics is available, 77% of suicides were male, but the proportion aged between 15 and 34 had risen to 72%. Figures for 2010 are as yet unavailable but, according to data collated by the PHA, the number of deaths registered as suicides last year looks set to exceed the 260 identified in 2009.

The other week former President Bill Clinton spoke about the toll taken by suicide in Ireland during the economic crisis.
Speaking at an awards ceremony organised by 'Irish America' magazine in the New York Yacht Club this week, Mr Clinton said: "The thing that has troubled me most, believe it or not, about this whole economic crisis in Ireland has been the rise in the suicide rate -- not just among the young where it was already too high, but among people in their prime working years who felt somehow their lives have been robbed from them by this.''

How true is this statement by Bill Clinton.
Mr Clinton said the country needed to learn lessons from the crash.
"The thing we always loved about Ireland had almost nothing to do with whether it was financially successful or not.
"Ireland will be great and prosperous and wonderful again simply by recovering again what it is at the core."

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Suicide increase. (Highest suicide rate recorded in Ireland)