Coroner: Suicides down after Donal’s plea

A coroner has said that the “plague” of suicides in Kerry had “considerably reduced” since the appeal by the late Donal Walsh to young people to think twice before doing so.

Mr Walsh, who died of cancer in May after a long battle, had spoken of his wish to live a natural lifespan and had appealed to young people not to take their lives.

Suicide has “plagued this county for years”, South Kerry Coroner Terence Casey told an inquest in Killarney.

“However, the amount has been considerably reduced since the late Donal Walsh appeal,” Mr Casey said.

Mr Casey was speaking after the first of two verdicts of suicide at the Coroner’s Court.

One was of a 19-year-old male in south Kerry. The grief-stricken friends of the young man — one of them sobbing openly as his deposition was read out — told of receiving texts from him and of making desperate efforts to find him.

The second suicide was that of a 17-year-old Asian boy who had moved with his family to east Kerry. His suicide came immediately after a friend in the area had taken his own life, the coroner remarked.