Before Their Time: Rise in suicide following peace in Northern Ireland

Before Their Time aired on Saturday 16th April from 7am-8am and is repeated on Sunday 17th April from 9pm-10pm.

Listen to the full documentary below

In the ten years following the long-anticipated arrival of peace on the streets of Northern Ireland, a troubling new issue has emerged.  The rate of suicide doubled between 2000 and 2006, with the most alarming rise being among young males. 

In this week’s edition of Different Voices on Newstalk 106 – 108 fm, Derry-based broadcaster Gerry Anderson examines the causes of the phenomenon that seems inevitably to be related to the preceding thirty years of conflict. 

Before Their Time, produced by Falling Tree Productions hears the testimonies of people closely affected by the deaths of loved ones before their time - Sean, whose teenage brother took his town life; Katharine, a youth worker engaged in a suicide awareness project who lost a close friend to suicide, and Philip McTaggart, who reacted to the death of his own teenage son by setting up PIPS, the Public Initiative for the Prevention of Suicide and Self-Harm.

The statistics in Northern Ireland are not matched by those collected in countries with comparable social and economic profiles. Gerry discusses the particular circumstances in Northern Ireland with covers sociologists Michael Tomlinson (Queen’s University) and Edward Goodall (New University of Ulster), who have researched the subject in two recent reports.  And he talks to NI’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Patricia Lewsley, about the shadow cast over the entire community by the rise in suicide rates among young men and the searching questions it raises about life and death in the north since the end of the ‘Troubles’. 

 “Before Their Time” was made with the support of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland.

Different Voices on Newstalk 106-108 fm, Saturday mornings 7am-8am and Sunday nights from 9pm.

More about: Broadcasting Authority of Ireland Commissioner Derry Edward Goodall Europe Geography Gerry Anderson Michael Tomlinson N.I. Limited New University of Ulster newstalk 106 NI Northern Europe Northern Ireland Patricia Lewsley Philip McTaggart Queen's University Republic of Ireland Sean Social Issues Suicide The Troubles University of Ulster western Europe youth worker