We must do everything possible to avert the one tragedy that affects us like no other

THE idea of a candlelit vigil for Suicide Prevention Day recently was appropriate, and fair play to the Irish rugby stars for supporting the event.

Suicide touches lives in ways that no other human tragedy does. It is the hidden death that dare not speak its name, immersing whole communities in a grief that is inconsolable.

At this moment, someone somewhere in Ireland is likely contemplating this drastic way out of a crisis or as an imagined solution to a seemingly insoluble problem or challenge. Far from being a solution, it will be the cause of unbearable pain and heartache of a kind that no family or human being deserves to endure.

The best and most compassionate way to commemorate those who have chosen this tragic and irreversible exit from life is to help and support anyone thinking of following in their path.

Judging a suicide victim is unfair and pointless, but those of us who are still on this side of the great divide between life and death can help to prevent future tragedies that we know will tear families apart and create untold suffering for those we love and who care about us.

The candles lighting at the vigil in Dublin might be seen as little flames of hope.

But they were only symbolic of a heartfelt desire on the part of those who have lost relatives to suicide.

That desire is that no other family in the country has to serve an unmerited and unjust life sentence of anguish, sorrow and self-recrimination because of a similar tragedy.

No matter how bleak or despair-laden life appears to be, there’s always a way out — and a surprising number of fellow human beings who are waiting to listen, understand and offer support, whatever the nature of the dark impetus towards that pointless despairing act.

Anyone considering suicide as an option should understand the consequences for those left behind and seek help.

They won’t be disappointed. A decision to choose life over death will spare one’s friends and relatives a trauma and pain that are not theirs.

Every day should be suicide prevention day.

John Fitzgerald

Lr Coyne Street

Callan

Co Kilkenny