Irish coroners under-reporting suicide as stigma still remains

Inaccuracies in reporting across Ireland aren’t helping the problem

By

KERRY O'SHEA,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Larger Text

Print

E-mail

7 Comments

Suicide retains stigma in Ireland

Photo by Google Images

Tweet

Recent studies in Ireland have found that the reporting of suicides in the country are largely inaccurate and under-reported by coroners. With this data, it is evident that the stigma attached to death by suicide is still rampant in Ireland, hampering efforts to bring the problem to light.

The Irish Independent reports on two stories today in regards to suicide. One details how the Travelling communities in Ireland have fallen victim to numerous deaths by suicide, while the other reports that coroners in Ireland are failing to accurately report suicides in hopes of sparing families of the deceased some shame.

"Travelling people, they just commit suicide and that's the end of the story. If you catch him, you cut him down, and if you cut him down they go back and do it again. They keep on doing it and keep on doing it until they succeed in doing it," said Jimmy Connors to The Independent.

“Mind you, I often thought about it from time to time but I always got over that hurdle. A lot of Travelling people are very private people, they don't like talking: it could be money problems, father and mother problems, and a lot of problems created in their own head. Me personally, I wouldn't express my feelings to nobody. I wouldn't even express my feelings to my wife,"said Connors in the documentary ‘Unsettled: From Tinker to Traveller,’ which airs on RTE One tomorrow night.

The Independent reports that nearly forty years ago suicide in Travelling communities was next to unheard of. Today, however, a man from a Travelling community is six times more likely to die from suicide as compared to a settled man.

In another investigation, The Irish Independent reached out to every coroner in Ireland in hopes of attaining accurate suicide figures for 2011. While some chose to be forthcoming, other denied comment. The figures that were delivered to The Independent varied across the country, signaling that there is under-reporting is rampant.

The Independent came to find that on average, 36 percent of all inquests land on suicide as the verdict of death.

Dublin City and Cork City coroners were found to have the lowest rates of suicide with 9 percent and 11 percent respectively. However, The Independent attributes these lower rates to “to the high number of cases that come before their courts and the myriad different cases as both are in jurisdictions that contain major hospitals.”

Alternately, Wexford Coroner Sean Nixon delivered a staggering figure of 52 percent of cases being a result of suicide.

"I don't get much pressure from families,” said Nixon. “I bring in the verdict that I think is the correct one. I don't think that the stigma is there surrounding suicide anymore. We need to get to the stage where if it is a suicide it gets reported as suicide.”

Print

E-mail

Tweet