Losing a job ‘can cause same grief as loss of loved one’

PEOPLE who lose their job can experience the same grief as those who lose a loved one, a bereavement counsellor and award-winning author has said.

Broadcaster Christy Kenneally, who presented RTÉ’s No Frontiers, was speaking ahead of a nationwide public lecture tour on how to cope with bereavement.

The first talk in the ‘From heartbreak to hope – coping with loss in a time of change’ series takes place in his native Cork next Monday.

“The talk is open to all and will be of special interest to those who have been affected by bereavement and those who care for them,” Mr Kenneally said.

“But loss has always been broader than bereavement and never more so that in post Celtic Tiger Ireland.”

The latest live register figures – the numbers applying for unemployment – hit 423,639 last month.

Each of those people can go through the same stages of grief – shock, anger, guilt, searching, and sadness – as if they had experienced a bereavement, Mr Kenneally said.

“Irish society is going through massive change,” he said.

“We are like a trapeze artist who has let go of one bar and is in that awful place in the middle.

“I sense a need for this series of talks at this time. People are often afraid that sadness means depression. Bereavement doesn’t bring on depression but if there is a history of depression, it can resurrect it.

“There is nothing wrong with being sad. But it is hard to be sad in a country that wants to cheer you up. We must learn to sit with people in sadness.”

His talks will explore a range of mechanisms to help people cope with loss and change. But he also promised laughter and humour which can help people cope.

Mr Kenneally is the author of several bestselling books including Maura’s Boy, The New Curate, Life After Loss, and Small Wonders.

He scripted and presented a series for television on the great religions of the world, as experienced through their art and architecture, entitled Heaven on Earth.

His recent TV series, Na Déithe Caillte, (The Lost Gods) which was screened recently on TG4 and Channel 4, was a landmark series exploring the great religions of the world.

* The first public lecture in the new heartbreak to hope series takes place at 7.30pm next Monday in the Metropole Hotel, Cork.

Tickets, priced at €20, will be available on the night.