Coroner's ruling on seven deaths

DUBLIN COUNTY coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty has sympathised with the families of seven people whom he found had intentionally taken their own lives.

The separate cases, all of which occurred earlier this year, involved six men and one woman who took their own lives by hanging.

In one of the cases before the court yesterday, Dr Geraghty was told a young Co Wicklow man told friends while out socialising on the night of his death, May 30th, that he had been dismissed from work. He said he planned to consult a solicitor about the dismissal in the morning.

A garda told the inquest a phone call from a male caller later the same night had advised that a body could be found hanging at a specified location. The call was later traced to the deceased.

Dr Geraghty said the man had intended to take his own life. “It is another sad case of a young man who felt he had to do that.”

The court also heard of the death of a 17-year-old Dubliner who had gone into the city on May 4th to celebrate his brother’s birthday. When he did not come home his family went searching for him and in the early hours of the following morning found him hanging near his home.

On June 4th a 23-year-old north Dublin man was found hanging close to his home. The court heard he had been up all night playing guitar and drinking with his brother. The man’s father told the inquest his son had suffered from depression for most of his life.

In another case, a woman who was discovered by her husband in her west Dublin home having attempted hanging, died 18 hours later in hospital.

Another case before the court concerned a man who took his own life a week short of his 22nd birthday. He had sent a text message to his partner telling her he was sorry,but he “had to do it”.

Dr Geraghty later told The Irish Timesthat despite the long list of suicides he did not have figures to show an increase in young men's deaths in the Co Dublin area.