Urban and rural must unite to combat social issues like suicide

As a city-dweller, I think it’s long past time we ended the urban/rural divide on suicide and other major social issues.

We need to approach social issues as one society and one community. John Comer, president of the ICMSA, is wrong to say that “non-farming or non-rural readers will struggle to comprehend the statistic that half of farmers have been impacted by suicide”. In fact, there is probably nobody in Ireland who will be surprised by these figures, because suicide has directly and indirectly affected so many of us.

There are many causes of suicide and many are common to rural and urban areas. Loneliness, isolation and the lack of real human contact are now major problems for city-dwellers, farmers and other people who live in rural areas. Feelings of “terror” and “sadness”, the “sudden rush of despair”, etc, can affect anybody.