Farmer’s wife seeks to tackle taboo of suicide

The wife of a farmer who took his own life due to depression has highlighted her husband’s tragic death to help break down the silent taboo around the illness in rural Ireland.

Ruth McCabe said her husband Sean was never able to admit he was suffering from depression in the lead-up to his suicide at their Cavan home two years ago.

Ms McCabe, a mother of five, is speaking out in a bid to highlight the importance of farmers seeking help if they are depressed or suicidal.

“It’s worth speaking about and that’s what I intend doing for the rest of my days,” she said.

Ms McCabe said her husband started to show signs of depression in the five years before his death.

“If the truth was known what was there all along was depression. He would say it was just stress. The word ‘depression’ wasn’t used. It was a taboo subject.

“It was horrendous because that 44-year-old man thought there was no other way of getting out of the pain he was in than to go up to the shed behind the house and take his own life.”

The charity So Sad told RTÉ programme Ear to the Ground that farmers can be particularly susceptible to depression as they lead a relatively solitary existence on the land.

Ear to the Ground airs at 8.30pm tonight on RTÉ One.