Two brothers committed suicide and a third brother from the same family died due to an accidental drug overdose in the past 15 years, an inquest has heard.
Dublin City Coroner's Court heard yesterday that a 29-year-old man took his own life six years after his brother had killed himself and 15 years since his twin brother died of a drug overdose. The family of 11 children live in Finglas, and the three brothers' parents are still alive.
Commiserating with the family, coroner Dr Brian Farrell said: "Three boys in your family have died tragically. I sincerely hope that this is the end of these tragedies."
The inquest heard that the 29-year-old man who took his own life last year had been suffering from depression and attempted suicide in the past.
A father of four children, he cut down the washing line in his back garden and hanged himself with the cord from the attic of his home on September 27th, 2005.
"He'd always suffered from depression. He had harmed himself a couple of times before," his wife told the court.
The family was aware that he suffered from depression as he had discussed it in the past, his sister said. At the time of his death, the man was not receiving any medical treatment for his depression, family members told the court.
Dr Farrell said the postmortem report revealed that the man died almost immediately. "One word of consolation I can offer is that he seemed to have died almost instantaneously from reflex cardiac arrest." Dr Farrell recorded a verdict of death by suicide.
On the day of his death, the man became agitated when he realised he had lost his sim card from his mobile phone the night before. "I got up and went to work. At about 12.30pm he phoned me very upset that he couldn't find his sim card and the bed was broken. He said he couldn't cope," his wife said.
Later in the day, when her husband still couldn't find his sim card, he "appeared to be losing the head". A couple of hours after leaving her husband at home, his wife returned to discover he had locked himself indoors. Accompanied by his two sisters, she entered through the back door and a neighbour was called, who discovered the man hanging in the attic. Dr Farrell said the man seemed to make a "snap decision" to take his own life. "He's at peace now," Dr Farrell said. "I sincerely hope the family can find some peace."