IN ONE-FIFTH of undetermined deaths a suicide note is found, meaning the number of suicides in Ireland is likely much higher than official figures state, the Joint Committee on Health and Children heard yesterday.
Prof Kevin Malone of the school of medicine and medical science, UCD and St Vincent’s University Hospital, said there were 527 recorded deaths by suicide in 2009, not taking into account such undetermined deaths. In a presentation on a study entitled Suicide in Ireland: A Conversation and Journey through Loss with Science and Arts, Prof Malone and artist Séamus McGuinness undertook a study in which 220 relatives of 104 people who died by suicide from 23 counties were interviewed.
As well as the scientific study, they also engaged a subgroup of this wider sample in an arts project, collecting pictures and items associated with the loved ones of 62 families.
This involved having an exhibition for the affected families, part of which involved a collection of pictures of those who had died by suicide. The exhibition was later shown to the public with the families’ consent.
Prof Malone said “nothing remotely” like the project had been undertaken in Ireland previously.
“This is a project about bringing the private traumatic loss of suicide from the kitchen tables around Ireland . . . to create a meaningful platform to discuss and articulate this loss in a place beyond stigma,” Prof Malone said.