Suicides spiralling over our spiritual poverty

Our national suicide problem is now so bad that three people a day are taking their own lives. Gardaí are said to be monitoring known suicide hotspots, such as quay sides and sea cliffs in Clare, such is the scale of the problem.

The truth about suicide is that people are suffering spiritual poverty due to a value system based on money, materialism, wealth and status. Despite all this material food, there is effectively a famine going on in this country, where people are hollowed out by all their worldly goods, but have nothing inside. It is also the case that people have developed very adversarial attitudes towards each other, which blackens the spirit to the point of removing all hope. They are starving for the food to keep their souls alive and losing the battle. Back-stabbing, personal insults, insensitivity, obstructive behaviour, vicious gossip, workplace bullying, family tensions, are all adding to our soaring suicide statistics.

There is simply no well of good to draw from in a vicious and cut-throat way of life that has smashed the bonds that use to keep people together for the good. Experts now believe that as many as 1,000 people are killing themselves annually. People who commit suicide want to escape from the nightmare that surrounds them — why else would they do it?