President Mary McAleese praised the work of an organisation working with families bereaved by suicide today for ending the “screaming silence” in which they used to suffer.
Mrs McAleese was speaking at Console House in Dublin in an address to mark World Suicide Prevention Day last Friday. The organisation provides suicide bereavement counselling and runs a national freephone helpline.
"We didn't have organisations like Console a generation ago. It's hard to credit that up until recent years people just suffered in silence and there must have been a lot of screaming grief inside people's hearts that needed a release but couldn't find it because we didn't have the language to deal with what was a taboo subject," she said.
"And now thanks to the work of Console we can talk about it, we can talk sensibly and intelligently and knowingly about it and also hopefully be able to give people who have been bereaved a sense that their lives can be refuelled, refilled with hope again.
"You can't leave people in that space of screaming silence any more. It is too painful a place to be," she added.
Console founder Paul Kelly said the President had been a leading light in the battle against suicide.
"The President put suicide on the national agenda. She has broken down the stigma surrounding suicide through her commitment and determination to make a difference," he said. "She has been with us through the good times and the bad times as our patron."