Call for new suicide canon

In 2003, the last year for which final figures are available, 60 per cent more people died through suicide in the Republic than on the roads, the synod was told.

Bishop Paul Colton of Cork, who is a director of the National Suicide Foundation, said in the same year suicide was "the leading cause of death in men aged 15 to 44" in the Republic.

He was seeking permission to introduce a Bill at the general synod next year updating canon law on suicide. He wished to see the removal of those canons "concerning the burial of the dead by omitting suicide from the exceptions listed", and to have the phrase "or had committed suicide" removed.

"The canon, if invoked following a suicide, would do nothing to nurture hope in the bereaved," he said.