Macho culture driving young men to suicide, warns monk

YOUNG men can become suicidal if they fail to live up to macho male stereotypes typified in sports such as rugby, a monk at a top college warned yesterday.

Br Mark Patrick Hederman, OSB of Glenstal Abbey, Co Limerick, said the rugby culture associated with countries such as New Zealand and Wales, along with regions such as Munster, suggested these were places where men were really men.

Speaking at a Suicide Awareness Week meeting in Limerick, he said: “Although of course, we are completely justified in our hero worship for the men in red [Munster] ... we have to recognise that these are not the only, nor are they the ultimate paradigms of masculinity.”