Republican News · Thursday 14 March 2002

Ignoring male suicide

BY EOIN BRADY

Following a series of seminars, the Sinn Féin cumann in NUI Galway recently held a very successful meeting on the issue of male suicide in Ireland.

Magill journalist Phil Mac Giolla Bháin spoke to a packed audience about the increasing numbers of young men who are choosing to exit this society by killing themselves. Mac Giolla Bháin, who has practised and taught social work for many years, described his work with the Donegal Mountain Rescue Team. He said that it has become in effect the unofficial Donegal suicide recovery unit, finding the bodies of predominantly young men who have given our society the biggest vote of no confidence it can receive from its own people.

He asked why it was that this issue has been swept under the carpet. He claimed that issues affecting men have not received the attention they should have. He pointed to the fact that there is a public campaign to highlight the problem of young male drivers and speed. He asked why there was no such campaign to tackle the causes of suicide among young men, which actually causes the deaths of more young men than car accidents.

He claimed that there is the bias against men in such spheres as the media, the health boards, the family law courts and in popular culture generally. Young men were finding it hard to find a defining role in a society increasingly marked by single parent families and rampant individualism, he said.

He also spoke of the breakdown of the traditional sense of community throughout the country, which has particularly hit rural areas. He called on republicans to face up to the dominant structures in society, which oppress both men and women, and to work for justice for everybody, regardless of gender.

A highly interesting question and answer session followed. Many students explored the issue of high rates of suicide in countries suffering from post-colonialism. Some speakers alluded to the fact that many male suicides can be attributed to society's attitude to difference, especially in relation to sexuality. The overall conclusion was that the causes of male suicide should be approached from a sociological as opposed to a psychiatric framework.