Suicide reaching ‘rampant’ levels in rural society, warns coroner

A MIDLANDS coroner has warned that suicide is “rampant” in rural society as yesterday alone he heard inquests into the deaths of five people who had taken their own lives.

Of the six inquests Offaly county coroner Dr Brian Mahon heard in Tullamore yesterday, five were the suicides of people — all men — aged between 32 years and 60 years.

He said the incidences of people taking their lives in Ireland was “really serious and rampant” at the moment adding there was evidence of an increase over the last year, particularly in rural areas.

The latest published figures for suicide in this country produced by the Central Statistics Office show that there were 527 cases, up from 424 the previous year.

An additional 195 “deaths by undetermined intent” were recorded by the CSO, a high proportion of which may have been suicide.

More recent figures, albeit provisional, have been published in Clare by the coroner’s office there. They show more than three times the number of people died from taking their own lives last year than from road tragedies.

The provisional statistics point to 15 suspected suicides in the county last year, compared with four road traffic fatalities.

The figure may be even higher for Clare amid concerns over a number of deaths where the cause has not been fully determined.

Yesterday, consultant psychiatrist Dr Moosajee Bhamjee called for the same energy and funding from Government, aimed at tackling road safety, to be put into lowering the numbers of people taking their own lives.