Society’s challenge

Suicide is one of the great tragedies of our time. Any family touched by it faces a huge, lasting and almost incomprehensible challenge. Its impact, and the layers of complexity and often unjustified guilt, it provokes, can be life defining.

Yesterday’s report on suicide in Cork and Kerry, that found that teenaged boys are six times more likely to take their own lives than girls, confirms a trend that has been obvious for some time. However, that does not in any way explain why this six-to-one ratio is a reality. It seems so disproportionate, so very out of kilter that it cannot be ignored.

Our economic circumstances, and the absence of opportunity that brings must contribute to this terrible trend but there must be more to it than that. Girls, after all, face the same economic circumstances and challenges.

Is it that despite huge cultural changes that some young men feel diminished if they cannot fulfil the role of a modern hunter gatherer?

So many theories abound, but what is fact is that we must address our society’s most pressing issue.