Suicide comments - A sad effect of aftermath

Despite the appalling increase of suicide in Ireland, it is still a taboo subject in this country.

As witnessed all too often in recent times, suicide is no respecter of age, status, or wealth, and hardly a person has not been touched by this tragedy.

Few come in closer contact with its aftermath than coroners. Dealing on occasion with multiple cases at a sitting, they know how important it is for those at the coal face to use language sensitively. Inevitably, a comment may be misconstrued.

Doubtless, that explains why Kerry coroner Terry Casey was reported to the Department of Justice when he remarked that “if only those who committed suicide could see what I see, the pain and the misery and the suffering left behind, they probably wouldn’t do it”.

On a day when suicide verdicts were returned in six out of eight inquests before his court, that frank comment was well-intended and understandable.