Wexford has been blighted with this too,Callan Co Kilkenny had a run of it a couple of Years ago too,its everywhere really,everyone on this site is probably related to someone whos done this including myself,its an awful decision for somebody to make.
Special 20 page section in the Examiner tomorrow devoted to suicide. Should make interesting reading. Fair play to them for trying to highlight it.
Da Paper is streets ahead with specials like this. I have it in front of me and its so sad, i opened up a page and they just have a huge list of people, their ages, and how they killed themselves. One of the first names i see was a guy i knew well. Its hard hitting, and in fairness, must be tough to read it even for close friends and family.
But it needs to be done. Awareness is key, it wonât solve the problem, but it could put a serious dent in it.
ChocolateMouse, make yourself a cup of tea lad and have a read of this thread from the beginning.
NextâŚ
I dont drink tea
and donât drink coffeeâŚ
cover your chin in Yorkshire toffee
Cover you chin in yorkshire toffee:barcasmile:âŚ
Damn you and your quick fingers flano, damn you to hellâŚ
Scary stuff when you think some people think itâs worth ending their own lives rather than facing up to hardship or trying to resolve the problem.
29 property suicides leave State unmoved
Families torn apart by cash crisis
By JEROME REILLY
Sunday March 21 2010
Twenty-nine deaths by suicide can be directly linked to the turmoil in the construction and property sector but dozens more deaths among small investors, homeowners and construction industry workers linked to financial despair have gone unreported.
David Mellon, of the Irish Property Council believes the human misery inflicted by the collapse in the property and construction industry is incalculable and the Government is doing nothing to protect the sanctity of the family home.
He predicted that by the time the economy recovers, hundreds will have taken their own lives because they have been plunged into a financial abyss from which they can see no way out.
"We are talking about people who invested in property, people who earned their livelihood from it in many forms; builders, plasterers, plumbers, developers and large and small investors.
âThey are now facing financial disaster, bankruptcy and destitution.there are teachers, gardai, lawyers all caught in the crossfire. They are in a suffocating despair.â
Analysis Page 28
He says that the seven-person board of the Irish Property Council had personal knowledge and the names of 29 suicide victims that can be directly attributed to turmoil in the property and construction sector.
âI was talking to one family who lost a husband and a brother and they have been simply torn apart. Itâs hard for people to talk about, to go public about what has happened. They want to protect their children and some are simply too shocked. They havenât come to terms with it.â
He has personal experience of the human cost of the disintegration of the construction industry. He lost a friend to suicide a year ago while another had to be talked out of taking his own life.
âThere are other cases too. I was having a pint with a friend of mine and he got a text from an employee. My friend was in shock and he showed me the message. It read: âI cannot come into work tonight. My brother killed himself today. He had no work for his trucks.â This man wasnât an investor. He wasnât a speculator. He wasnât anything other than a man trying to make a living,â said Mr Mellon.
Property developer and suicide campaigner Noel Smyth has revealed that a 24-hour helpline set up by suicide charities three months ago is now receiving between 2,500 and 3,000 calls a month â many of them from people being ruthlessly pursued for money.
âThey would be classified as high-risk calls, in other words someone who already has a suicide ideation or they may have actually planned a suicide,â Mr Smyth told the Sunday Independent.
âDefinitely the age profile of people with suicidal thoughts is changing and that is a reflection of financial worries. Many are in difficulties with property, with bank loans, with the Revenue.â
Meanwhile, a financial tsunami is heading toward thousands of first-time buyers and investors who took out âinterest-onlyâ loans at the height of the property boom.
Thousands of these loans will now revert to capital repayment loans and are on properties already deep in negative equity.
Around 14 per cent of the 158,098 mortgages approved in 2007 were for interest-only products. Many lenders offered âinterest-onlyâ holidays of two or three years.
Similarly 15 per cent of the 110,300 loans approved in 2008 were also interest only.
It means tens of thousands of people, particularly first-time buyers, will have severe difficulties meeting repayments when the interest-only period comes to an end before the end of the year.
Respond, the housing agency, told the Sunday Independent they have received calls from many distressed homeowners whose mental health is being affected.
Aoife Walsh of Respond said: "There is a crisis out there which is taking a human toll. The Irish Banking Federation have renegotiated the mortgages of 30,000 householders. We are very fearful for a lot of people out there.
"I have been receiving from [calls] people in difficulty who are at the end of their tether fearing their home will be repossessed. They are displaying worrying depressive tendencies. Their mental health is being put under pressure and there are immense pressures on families.
âIt is having an impact on marriages which is not being taken into account. The social implications are enormous. The screw is being turned on marriages and the family unit and that is going to have far reaching consequences for Irish society for years to come,â Ms Walsh said.
Developer Noel Smyth said he has been shocked at the huge number of calls received by a free 24-hour helpline (1800 247100) set up by his organisation Turning the Tide of Suicide in conjunction with the suicide charity Console.
âUnfortunately the people who are putting them under pressure, whether it is the banks or whatever, have no understanding, no training. When they come across an uptight client they treat them as a normal tough guy or woman â and as a result of all that, they are unaware that they are potentially driving someone over the top,â he advised.
"People caught up in this are nearly afraid to be seen complaining or to actually voice that they are in a lot of trouble.
"They fear that they are going to be told that âItâs your own fault. you were greedy, you were grabbyâ and that means there is no support for people out there.
âThis Government is treating suicide like they treat the poor. Their view is that âthe problem will always be there so therefore we can ignore it,ââ Mr Smyth added.
Must be soul destroying though for your business to go under. I know a good few who would have got through very bad times in the 80s and then hit the boom - creating jobs, economic prosperity, filling our Revenue satchels to now having it all gone pretty much overnight.
Very sad when someone feels they have to kill themselves. Must be a very dark place to be. Unfortunately it is going to get worse. Hopefully the Govt and Media will give it the same spotlight as road deaths
A tragic consequence of this live by the market die by the market philosophy the construction industry lobby groups wanted this last decade. I really hope it is given the coverage it deserves, even if all it does is warn people of the downside of the high flying lifestyle the Sindo sold the public for the last ten years. I also hope that the likes of the Sindo donât abuse this tragedy for their ends. Construction industry groups talking about the âsanctity of the family homeâ really is a sick joke.
Jaysus they sure milked the Katy French tragedy for all it was worth, WTB!
Heard yesterday of a very sad suicide of a young fella in his early 20s, I know his father very well. Heartbreaking stuff. Had been suffering from depression and not working though he was a qualified young tradesman. November is supposed to be a very bad month for it statistically. With all the grimness around, itâs easy forget there are people going through stuff that would make financial distress seem utterly trivial.
Alot of the time it is financially related. Although with younger kids it can any number of reasons.
Donât agree with you about suicide being financially motivated it seems to have eased off around here since the recession started but thatâs just around here. I think half the problems is people are afraid to talk about issues they have and if they do the people they tell have no idea what to say.
Hard to know what the solution to this problem is but I think recognising we have a problem is the first step, the church would seem to have a lot to answer for but their influence has waned so much hey are hardly relevant any more, I think bullying of one form or another has a lot to do with it too.
Weâve a notoriously bad attitude towards mental health in this country turfcutter, itâs the biggest part of the problem. The catholic church and their institutionalisation of shame definitely have a lot to answer for, and just because theyâre on the back foot it doesnât mean their legacy is any different. There are people trying to fight the problem though, especially with young people. Not that theyâre the only ones who need help.
The medical profession have to look at themselves in this whole area as well. How many people around go to their doctor complaining of feeling down and the doctor throws pills at them, and tells them to come back in a week? Then if there is no improvement the doctor tries another type of pill.
The first thing that should happen when someone complains of depression, is to set up a meeting with a therapist (or someone who cannot pescribe pills). Anti depression manufacturers ply doctors with freebies in order to get them to use their wonder drug. Itâs a disgrace really.
If someone goes to the doctor feeling down because their business has collapsed for instance, you donât throw chemicals at it to solve it. You get them to talk about it with a trained person, or at the very least combine the two. They feel down, for a justifiable reason and they need to talk it out. It seems as if it canât be solved with a pill, a doctor is clueless.