Suicide

A sambo and a bonfire mate. Well deserved. Delighted to hear that news.

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Wow, you have really put it up to @admins now in terms of handing put an infraction

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Great news. Things will only get better. Communication is your ally here.

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No doubt about it. The Iron Mikes are made of tough stuff. Hope the lass is doing as well as can be expected, given the circumstances. You always speak fondly - online and in person, of your family. Take care and vent the fuck away here.

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Living with the guilt of JP pouring millions in Limerick hurling, must be tough on all of you @limericks.

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Positve news Mike all told. Everytime i logged into TFK iā€™d look for this thread for any updates. You are good skin, you will all get there in time :facepunch:

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Best wishes to you and your @iron_mike

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@iron_mike best news I heard all week. Savour the little wins, they will all add up to something great.

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Great news @iron_mike , focus now on positive things and your daughters recovery. There is great resources out there - make sure that she uses them. Ye will get through it.

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Same as @Phil_Leotardo above (and many others Iā€™m sure) this was my first port of call the last few evenings hoping for a positive update. Glad to see ye are on the road to recovery, best wishes to you all.

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Great to hear that @iron_mike. Like Iā€™m sure many others did too, I was popping in a few times a day hoping youā€™d left a positive update. All the best to your family for the future she has had a second chance and has a great auld fella in you to help her on the road to recovery.

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Great news @iron_mike,she has a great family around her so Iā€™m sure sheā€™ll be ok.Good luck and mind yourself.

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There have been five suicides on Irish railways since July 9th, the latest today. None of them me, obviously, but that hasnā€™t been for the lack of thinking about it. Today was my worst day in quite some time.

I have had a weird proximity thing in connection with rail suicides. On July 12th, 2022, I got the 5:30pm service from Dublin Heuston to Galway. An hour or two after my train passed through Monasterevin, there was a rail suicide.

On the night of Saturday July 8th, I was in Dublin on my own and in a bad way and loosely made a plan to go to somewhere on the main rail line into Heuston the next morning to kill myself. When I woke up the next morning I did not have such a plan. But had I got there, there would have been no trains, because some other poor soul had done it.

On July 12th, around midday or so, I had a mad idea to get a train up to Lurgan to see the return parade by the brethren that afternoon. I wasnā€™t really serious about it and didnā€™t bother, and instead went to Galway, but had I decided to go to Lurgan, I wouldnā€™t have got there because the trains were delayed due to a ā€œtragic incidentā€.

Iā€™ve been awake since 5am today and in bits for most of it. Iā€™ve identified the stretch around Kildare as the bit Iā€™m going to go to should I ever feel the need, and for a time today I did feel that need. I had a look at the train timetables this morning. 1505 from Galway, stopping at Newbridge was the one. I didnā€™t go. That seems to have been the train that hit some poor soul.

And there was very nearly a sixth at Tullamore yesterday.

Five in 10 days is insane as it is. I hope none of my words on this forum have ever made somebody more inclined to do this.

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I know of one of those suicides. Dreadful aftermath. Lives utterly ruined.

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Even though I did not know that poor person I have thought of them and their family every day since it happened and it has affected me and upset me.

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This is a thread I have always shied away from reading due to my own loss of two people so very close to me by suicide. The sad impact of that on me, my family and friends has meant the word and hence the title thread filling me with fear and obvious sadness.
I was aware of the spate of people taking their lives on the railways recently and for some reason I decided to read the thread tonight. I really dont koow what to say to Cheasty and anybody else here struggling and having suicidal thoughts other than to say try to find the good in something or somebody if at all possible and little moments of pleasure. My heart and thoughts go out to anybody struggling with things.

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Was the incident at Sallins yesterday a suicide? I live within sight of the Dublin Cork line and heard a Cork bound passenger train passing at midnight when I was going to bed, which would be unusually late for passenger trains to be running. ( I actually know by the sound of the locomotive whether it is a Cork bound or Limerick/Tralee bound train). A quick check of Irish Rail Twitter stated there had been an incident at Sallins yesterday evening.

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I canā€™t imagine it wasnā€™t. Generally suicides are not reported in a personal way, ie. the identities of the victims are never mentioned. The only reporting youā€™d get would be to inform people of delays due to a ā€œtragic incidentā€, especially if itā€™s on a line with heavy commuter traffic.

The tragedies which arenā€™t suicides tend to be reported on in a more up front and personal manner, ie. the woman in Sligo last month and a chap hit by the Belfast-Dublin train last September.

Also I think that anybody familiar with Sallins station, or indeed any station along that stretch of line, would be familiar with the movement of trains along it, and know to stay well clear of the edge of the platform. Itā€™s one of the fastest stretches of lines in the country. I was on a train from Galway to Dublin about five weeks back which left Galway at 11:05. It limped into Tullamore at 1pm on the dot and I thought I was going to miss my 2:30pm appointment, but it got into Heuston at 1:48pm. You really notice the difference in speed between the Dublin-Portarlington stretch of line and particularly west of Athlone.

In some places now there are barriers on platforms to stop suicides. The photo here is from the Copenhagen metro. I think barriers like this will become commonplace in metro systems worldwide as the years go on. It would be much harder to implement on Irish Rail and obviously wouldnā€™t stop all suicides because there are lots of other ways to get onto railway lines but might at least prevent some, and prevent psychological trauma to other passengers on a platform where somebody does it.

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And the barriers are also to stop people being pushed in front of trains, either accidentally or on purpose, on busy platforms.

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