Time to be honest on the causes of suicide

Despite the attention focussed on the unnecessary death of Savita Halappanavar by coroner Dr Ciaran MacLoughlin’s revealing Galway inquest, the Ireland portrayed at South Kerry coroner Terence Casey’s quarterly court this week, where five out of six deaths considered were suicides, is a deeply disturbing and dysfunctional place.

If we imagine ourselves a decent people we must work much harder to change society because we can no longer pretend that its failings and unfairness do not play a large part in these terrible events. What is it in our culture, our interactions or evasions, that makes such a final decision seem the only option available to so many young people?

We must work too to discredit the almost congratulatory response to suicide, especially by young people, on social media. A person is never “in a better place” after suicide but that assertion is regularly made. It is certain that bereft relatives do not agree.

The five Kerry suicide verdicts related to men, the oldest was 30 and the youngest two were just 16. The almost unfathomable depth of these tragedies is a trend as Mr Casey pointed out — seven of the eight deaths considered at the two previous sittings of that court were also suicides. That means that 12 of the last 14 deaths he dealt with were suicides. There could hardly be a stronger indictment of our society.

If we shy away — again — from one of the messages these deaths convey, and Savita Halappanavar’s too, we can expect many, many more and the bleakness that will bring.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to answer the “why” question on these tragic deaths but there may be a common thread, stronger in some cases than in others, running through each terrible loss.

If you believe in the innate, natural honesty and decency of the great majority of people, and it is too disheartening not to, then the dishonesty, the inequity and cruel unfairness that shapes much of Ireland in 2013 must be a catalyst for some of these deaths. Our abjection to materialism, especially in a society all but shorn of opportunity, must play a large part too. It is probable that as we become more comfortable, more insulated, we are less resilient, less able to see a way through some of life’s challenges even though there is nearly always one. The collapse in religious belief — or piety — and its individual comforts must be a factor too.

It might be wrong to say that dishonesty is the root cause of these issues but they are rooted in an absence of honesty. The kind of social honesty that will allow someone drowning in despair to ask for help, to, at their most vulnerable moment, reveal themselves to a world that may have shown itself cold and disinterested. The kind of emotional and spiritual honesty that makes action on challenging injustice mandatory rather than just the option it seems to be today.

Yesterday afternoon the jury in the Halappanavar inquest returned a unanimous verdict of medical misadventure and endorsed nine recommendations made by Dr MacLoughlin. Twist it anyway you might, and many people will, Savita Halappanavar died because our laws are not honest enough to recognise the realities of the world we live in. Legislation is being finalised to resolve that cruelty so maybe that might inspire the kind of honesty and courage we seem to lack to help us confront some of the reasons behind the terrible tragedies revealed in Killarney this week but echoed right across the county.