Suicide verdict in three of four Killarney inquests

Suicide was the verdict in three of the four inquests at the coroner’s court in Killarney, Co Kerry yesterday and the fourth inquest was held “to allay” rumours in an east Kerry community that the deceased took his own life.

Coroner for South and East Kerry, Terence Casey, was presiding for the last time before retiring because he will be 70 tomorrow. He said the suicide rate was too high in Kerry; it is rising again and now involves an older age group than in previous years.

He credited the late teenager, Donal Walsh, who had spoken out against suicide, as a turning factor for young people taking their own lives in Kerry: “Since I started speaking about suicide, Donal Walsh made an awful lot of difference to young people under the age of 21.”