Suicide - the silent epidemic sweeping Northern Ireland

Lee Walker, just 15 years old, is the latest victim of a suicide epidemic sweeping Northern Ireland. Lee was also the third 15-year-old schoolboy attending Craigavon High School to take his own life in recent weeks.
Lee hung himself from a lamp post, the same lamp post on which his friend James Topley had committed suicide the previous week. Both these young boys used their "hoodie" tops to hang themselves. Just four weeks earlier, Wayne Browne had killed himself in the neighbouring village of Laurelvale. The boys were all the same age and all three travelled together on the same bus to school.
At the funeral of Lee Walker, the Reverend Shane Foster encapsulated the feeling of paranoia that stalks the local community:
“There are so many theories as to why Lee, James, Wayne and Stuart died in this way. Many of those theories are just born out of fear. But if you have any idea of what is going on, tell someone. People’s responses are no longer words of why, of how, and how the family are going to cope. Instead people are saying, ‘Who will be next?’ That is just not healthy.”
The extent of this fear is evidenced by Lee Walker’s father Tony Walker, who discussed his concerns with the Belfast Telegraph.
“I’ve never been frightened of anything in my whole life,” he said. “But when my youngest son gets to the age of Lee, I’m going to handcuff him to me.”
Thus the loss of these three young men has not only left a trail of grief and sadness, it has instilled in people a fear for the future of the youth of this community – and of the wider community in Northern Ireland.

ONLINE CHAT ROOM
Sadly, Craigavon is not the first area of Northern Ireland to witness a number of connected suicides, with young friends taking their lives within a short space of time. In the nearby town of Kilkeel, no less than eleven people took their own lives in 2005. There have been deaths in Belfast too: many people will be familiar with the case of Bernard Cairns who hung himself in the grounds of Holy Cross Church in the Ardoyne, after attending his friend Anthony O’Neil’s funeral. Anthony had also taken his own life. Both had been victime of paramilitary intimidation
Academic Thomas Paine has classed incidents such as these as ‘cluster suicides’. He likens cluster suicides to mini-epidemics of a contagious illness. One individual may commit suicide – this in turn leads to a number of other individuals close to the original individual developing a view that suicide is ‘the easy way out‘.
Lee, James and Wayne swere all acquainted with a 28-year-old man, Stuart Fletcher, who took his life three months ago, in the same park where James and Wayne hung themselves.
Some observers believe that there are dark new forces at work that encourage the trend towards self-harm. The double suicide of two men in Gorta Lake in County Tyrone a fortnight before Lee took his life highlights the role which the internet can play for those contemplating suicide.
These two young men, Barry McGlade from Omagh and Nicolas Jamieson from Dublin, had ‘met’ and planned how they would take their lives together in an online chat room.
Although the PSNI have taken away Wayne’s computer for analysis, it is not suspected that Lee, James and Wayne used the internet as a resource to plan their deaths. However, the internet has certainly taken on a potentially sinister role in the aftermath of their deaths. Social networking sites such as Bebo and MySpace are being used to fuel the rumour mills of why these three young men decided to take their lives.
Rumours such as this: these deaths are just the beginning of a death-list involving 10 young teenagers, who have made a suicide pact to each end their lives over the next few months. Inevitably, these rumours have added to the anxiety of those already grieving for the loss of these young boys and have added to the increasing feeling of despair in the local community.

INCREASE OF 37%
The Northern Ireland Assembly Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey, speaking on UTV said that he would like to consult with social networking sites such as Bebo and MySpace to discuss pertinent issues arising from these events.
“One of the questions we have to ask, though, is what responsibility are internet operators assuming in this – because the internet is being used widely as part of the contagion?
What responsibility do they assume for what they carry? How are they fitting in with the suicide prevention strategy and the prevention mechanisms?”
Many members of the health profession are now asking what action the Northern Ireland Assembly can take to combat the increasing frequency of suicides in the province. First Minister the Rev. Ian Paisley met with Patricia Lewsley, Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, to discuss developing a strategy to deal with what he has described as an ‘urgent matter’. Meanwhile, the Education Minister, Catriona Ruane, of Sinn Féin, has also pledged to make counselling services available to all secondary schools and stressed the need to establish a helpline to provide support and someone for people to talk to at vulnerable times.
Already, mobile counselling services have been established and counsellors are talking with young and vulnerable people from the boys’ school and the wider community of Craigavon, in a desperate bid to break the cycle of suicides in this small County Down town. Hopefully they will have a positive impact.
However, with 291 suicides in 2006, an increase of 37% on the number in 2005, and deaths from suicides outnumbering those from road traffic accidents, there is an urgent imperative for a pro-active response from the Northern Ireland Assembly. Northern Ireland is struggling to leave one nightmare behind. What we need to ensure now is that the old reality is not supplanted by another one, that is – in its own way – capable of being every bit as tragic.