Families of suicide victims organise seminar in Leitrim

An estimated 400 people, many of whom have been bereaved by suicide, are expected to attend a seminar on the issue in Co Leitrim this weekend.

The seminar has been organised by three local families who have suffered loss from suicide.

The organisers say that since publicising the event they have been inundated with pleas for help from bereaved families and people who have contemplated suicide.

"We have been shell-shocked by the response we have got from every part of this country," said Mr John McTernan, Dromahair, whose son, Garry, took his own life just over a year ago.

The scale of the response indicated there were not enough support services even though almost 450 people took their lives in 2003, he added.

"One mother has never talked to anyone about her child's suicide 10 years ago, while another mother hasn't been out of the house for three years," said Mr McTernan.

His wife, Mary, a former community psychiatric nurse, said that after being interviewed about their personal tragedy in The Irish Times last month the family had received several calls from troubled young men.

"One young lad asked me to tell him in my own words how it felt to be the mother of someone who took his own life," said Mrs McTernan. "I told him and he said he didn't think he could do that to his own mother."

Mr McTernan said the system should not be so "hit and miss" that people who were suffering like this did not have ready access to professional help.

The seminar has been organised by the McTernans and the families of two other Co Leitrim men who committed suicide, Kevin Fallon (27), Drumkeerin, and Pat Kerins (26), Killargue, Dromahair.

They have set up a committee called STOP (Suicide: Teach, Organise, Prevent) and are anxious to see a nationwide support system.