February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN – Despite the booming economy, declining unemployment and the prospect of peace, suicides north and south of the border have increased alarmingly, according to new figures published this week.
The figures show more people are now dying as a result of suicide
throughout Ireland than are being killed on the roads.
In the Republic, the Irish Medical News reports that 433
people took their own lives last year, the highest number of suicides ever recorded and an increase of 14 percent over 1996.
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The Central Statistics Office figures show that eight of the
suicides were by children aged between 5 and 14. Three-quarters of the suicides were by young or middle-aged men. Of the total, 355 were men, compared with 78 suicides by women.
A government report published earlier this year recommended better training and education for doctors treating those at risk, more research and restrictions on certain pain killers associated with suicide.
In Northern Ireland, suicides have increased dramatically since the
start of the year, especially among adolescents, according to the
Samaritans charity group.
Suicide is now the leading cause of death among 16- to 24-year-olds in the North, where it is estimated that 19 people attempt to take their own lives every day.
There has been an average of one suicide a day, and in west
Belfast alone, 20 people have killed themselves since Jan. 1, compared with 30 suicides there in all of 1997.
The highest suicide rates were recorded in deprived areas of
northern and western Belfast, where there has been strong paramilitary activity before the cease-fire.
The Samaritans have begun a campaign to make people aware of the problem through a series of posters.