€10m a year sought for suicide prevention

DUBLIN'S STREETS have seen protests about hundreds of issues, ranging from beef prices to the Middle East, but few were as poignant as yesterday's demonstration.

It involved a group of parents and siblings with little power or political clout. But at 1.25pm, a garda raised his hand and stopped the traffic on Parnell Square to let them make their way.

Then lone piper Kevin Duncan led the Action on Suicide Alliance from the Garden of Remembrance to the Dáil, as they held aloft photographs of their loved ones who died by suicide.

The 100-strong group marched down O'Connell Street in silence. Shoppers, office workers and tourists stopped in their tracks to watch the small procession and some took photographs with their mobile phones.

Some marched in groups, representing organisations such as Teen-Line, 3Ts (Turn the Tide of Suicide) and Console.

Others such as Pauline Lucas walked alone. She held her son Shane's photograph. The 24-year-old from Athboy died two years ago. "If this saves one parent from walking these steps then I'll walk anywhere," she said. "This is very hard, but I don't want his memory forgotten. He was my precious son."

Darren Bolger (16) is laughing in his photograph, but he later took his own life. His mother Maureen later helped to found Teen-Line Ireland to help other teenagers who feel they have nowhere to turn.

Rita Farrelly walked beside her and talked about her 15-year-old son Richard. The talented guitarist died four years ago, shortly after leaving an adult psychiatric hospital. "They had nowhere else to put him," she said. "He wrote in his diary that that was what tipped him over, being put in a locked ward."

This lack of facilities and support for people with depression was highlighted by many protesters. John Saunders, chairman of Action of Suicide Alliance, said the problem had reached "crisis point" with more than 600 people taking their own lives every year.

When it reached the Dáil, the group handed a letter to Minister of State for Health Jimmy Devins, urging the Government to implement recommendations made in recent reports. It also sought the allocation of €10 million a year for suicide prevention for the next five years.

But the march was equally about acknowledging loss, according to Suzanne Kinsella. Her brother John (29) took his own life last November.

Property developer Noel Smyth, chairman of the 3Ts, noted that people bereaved by suicide often felt people were reluctant to ask them about it.

"It seems to be less of a death if you die by suicide than by cancers or a road accident," he said.

But the relatives of Stuart and Robbie McWilliams were not allowing their deaths to be ignored yesterday. In the space of seven years, the two brothers had taken their own lives.

"It's horrendous," said their sister Anne McGuire. "It's very rough and tough for every last one of us. That's why we're here. We have to do something to stop this."