Ireland's Killing Fields

Ireland is inappropriately placed as it is, up north of mainland Europe and hanging off the edge of the continental shelf. It should be further south, in Egypt perhaps, close to the Nile. "The Nile" or "Denial" - as it is known locally in Ireland - is not just that river in Egypt. It is a national malady that has befallen the emerald isle.

As an article in the Butler Report and the Irish Independent today reports, suicide rates in Ireland are ridiculously high. They have been for as long as they have been recorded. For many years suicides were recorded as accidental deaths for religious reasons. On analysis many reasons are given - the weather, exam pressures (true), mental health issues, depression, alcohol, lack of sunlight - there's a list as long as roll of paper towel.

There are two distinct reasons that are, to a large part, ignored by the Irish: depression and alcohol. The rate of depression in Ireland is high. Mental illness is a national malady that's largely swept under the rug and not spoken about. Mental illness is treated as a stigma still relegated to the bastions of the mental hospitals and psychiatric units.

However that mental illness is in full bloom throughout the island visible for all being treated daily by a drug not unique to Ireland; alcohol. Alcohol in increasing doses can effectively treat depression until it eventually drives the person insane or kills them.

An interesting theoretical equation is as follows: Depression + heavy alcohol consumption = an increased propensity toward suicide.

The age that young people are introduced to alcohol in Ireland is laughably young - some as young as 10 starting drinking regularly in what is a culturally alcoholic country. I use the words "cultural alcoholism" not in a judgmental way but as an observation. Some countries have high national alcohol consumption acceptance, so a heavy drinker in the crowd goes unnoticed. Ireland is at the top of that statistical heap, perhaps unfairly. Unique to being Irish, when one mentions Irish citizenship, the usual response is "You guys love to drink," with a wink and a sad but knowing nod. Interestingly, and this is why the observation is unfair, 25% of the population doesn't drink alcohol at all. Not a drop. Which of course means that the rest drink quite a bit to make up those annual per capita consumption figures.

Teenage-hood has been described by a psychologist friend of mine as a psychosis. A cruel time in our growth where nature messes with our mind and we are stretched one way and then another by hormones and our growth to adulthood. We are prone to moods and depression. Some more than others. Nature counters this naturally by giving us the joie de vivre and the energy of youth. For the most part.

Inject into this the depressive effects of alcohol and you have a ready made recipe for disaster, manifested by the annual suicide statistics. Alcohol when first ingested is a stimulant, the cure for all that ails us. A glass (one) of beer or wine now and again is a fine tonic even for growing teens. However the Irish, the subject of this piece, are by nature and proven study, binge drinkers. Going out for a drink generally means betting smashed and is the norm not the exception.
Over time the depressive effect of frequent alcohol use becomes permanent. For some this can take a lifetime. For others, it can happen within months of frequent heavy drinking and life becomes a downward spiral of gloom and hopelessness. The result, suicide. The blame? Anything but the true cause.
The remedy? Suicide as an epidemic is preventable when the cause is acknowledged. In my opinion, Ireland, as a culture, is not yet sufficiently mature to accept that there is a problem to begin with as it relates to the negative role that alcohol has on society. And so these suicide numbers will rouse an annual chorus of "tut, tut," and "oh, dear" - and little else - for years to come until such time that the the Irish realize that they, by ignoring the problem, are really killing their own.