Suicide and separated dads: is there a link?

MARY CLEARY (Irish Examiner letters, October 5) draws attention to the plight of “thousands of fathers who feel they have been very badly treated by the family law courts”.

She describes how “many lead lives of quiet desperation simply because their marriages fail”.

Sam Butt (Irish Examiner letters, October 3) refers to “long–suffering separated fathers”.

On the same day that Ms Cleary’s letter was published, the HSE released figures for levels of suicide in Ireland last year. There were 432 in 2005, of whom 354 were men and 78 were women. These figures show a 4.5:1 male to female ratio.

The report also claims that men under 35 account for 40% of these suicides and that there are 11,000 cases of self-harm requiring hospital treatment each year.

Most of these self-harm cases occur among girls between the ages of 15 and 19.

I believe there is a connection between what Ms Cleary and Mr Butt are saying and the findings of the HSE report. The brutality that has been meted out to men in the family law courts has taken its toll in terms of suicide, alcoholism and poverty.

And the pain suffered by children exiled by the legal system from their fathers’ love is exacerbated by our male-bashing culture.

I wonder how much this has contributed to making Ireland the fifth highest ranked EU country for suicides in the 15-to-24 age category .

Patrick McGinnity

Derrynoose

Keady

Co Armagh