Retired gay garda driven to the brink of suicide

A RETIRED garda sergeant said his life was a living hell as a guard struggling to come to terms with being gay.

Speaking to the in-house magazine, Garda Review, the retired officer, aged 47, said he had been driven to the brink of suicide.

He said: “Before ‘being gay’ caught up with me, I cried myself to sleep - if I did sleep at all. I threw pillows at the wall. I couldn’t lie down for very long and neither could I stay up for very long. It was hell living a life of loneliness, hostility, isolation, discrimination ... and I suppose denial of being gay.”