The figures come from the Irish Association of Suicidology (IAS), which has welcomed a Galway-based three-year study into the number of men committing suicide in rural areas. Teagasc’s Rural Economy Research Centre (RERC) at Mellow’s Campus in Athenry is funding the vital study, which will examine the issue of rural men and suicide.

Dr John Connolly, founder of the IAS based in Castlebar, said the study was “very important” as the suicide rate in rural areas is “much higher” than in urban areas. The latest figures from the IAS show that in 2005 14 people per 100,000 population in the county committed suicide. This is double the number in the city where seven people per 100,000 population took their own lives.

The Teagasc study will look at the breakdown of suicide rates in rural areas and reveal the reasons for this. The organisation has allocated funding through its Walsh Fellowships Scheme for a three-year PhD study by Ms Maria Feeney, who is a native of Galway and graduate of NUI Maynooth. She has recently been awarded the fellowship and the study will be supervised jointly by the RERC’s Áine Macken Walsh, Dr Anne Cleary (UCD) and Frank Laffey of Teagasc. Ms Feeney will have access to people who have attempted suicide.

While the incidence of suicide across the EU is falling, the Irish rate of suicide among men is increasing. According to Aware, a voluntary organisation set up to highlight depression, young men are more likely to commit suicide. Whenever there is an increase in the suicide rate in a region, the increase is usually strongest in those aged 15 to 29 years. The extent of the increase is always more apparent in males, according to Aware.

In Ireland, the low rate of suicide in those under 24 years changed in the early 1980s with a gradual increase in the suicide rate in young men, culminating in a fourfold increase between 1990 and 1996.

Suicide rates are generally lowest in women, married individuals and those in the higher socio-economic groups. They’ve also found a clear statistical link between unemployment and suicide, especially in men.

Along with the study, the Teagasc RERC will host a seminar on ‘Irish rural societal change and the growing incidence of suicide’ at its Mellow’s Campus in Athenry, on Tuesday next, 28 August from 2pm until 3.30pm. It is open to the general public, community organisations, and to those who work in areas that are broadly impacted upon by the problem of suicide.

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