Thursday-Friday, 19-20 February, 2004
Tuesday-Wednesday, 17-18 February, 2004
Thursday-Friday, 19-20 February, 2004
Irish President calls for help for 'pockets of despair'
By Republican News
The Irish President, Mrs Mary McAleese, has spoken out following the recent spate of suicides in her native Republican Ardoyne in north Belfast.
Asked about the suicides, she spoke of "the huge level of dysfunction" in northern communities still trapped by sectarianism and waiting to feel the effect of the so-called "peace dividend".
She says there is much still to be done to rescue "pockets of despair" untouched by changing political relationships and transformed political landscapes.
"I don't think it takes rocket science to work out what the problems there are. Ardoyne is one of those places that is still waiting ... to see the effect of what all the rest of us call the peace dividend. For many of the people who live there, whether they are Catholic or Protestant, loyalist or republican ... they are dealing with endemic unemployment, which has been endemic for generations ... they are dealing with right-up-front-in-your-face everyday sectarianism; they are dealing with streets that aren't safe, literally from 100 yards to the next; they are dealing with the presence of paramilitarism, which I understand was a factor certainly in the more recent deaths... and the consequences almost of policing by paramilitaries.
"There is a huge level of dysfunction in which it must be very difficult for young people to feel hope in the future, to feel a sense of joy, a sense of liberation." This must be particularly so for young people who dropped out of school early and who were particularly vulnerable.
When she was aksed why despair should be a problem following the end of conflict, she said: "Insofar as I can intuit any kind of answer, I think it has a lot to do with the pace at which people are moving in terms of the peace dividend . . . It's not evenly distributed in terms of its benign effect."
Tuesday-Wednesday, 17-18 February, 2004
Ardoyne seen in distress following suicides
By Republican News
Some 18 people have taken their own lives in the nationalist enclave of Ardoyne since Christmas, two in the past week alone.
Father Aidan Troy of the Holy Cross parish said that paramilitary activity such as punishment beatings, local deprivation and a sense of hopelessness were contributing to the growing crisis.
Bernard Cairns was found by Father Troy and a curate hanging from scaffolding at Holy Cross Church on Saturday. The discovery was made shortly after the funeral of Mr Cairns's best friend, Anthony O'Neill also 18, who took his life last week. Both had suffered paramilitary "punishment attacks" by the INLA paramilitaries in response to alleged anti-social activities. It is believed that the subsequent loss of self-esteem -- already low in the deprived community following the cessation of armed struggle -- -- had pushed the boys over the edge.
"Young Anthony O'Neill, whom I buried on Saturday, had been put down a manhole as a punishment," Father Troy said last night. "Mr Cairns had been shot in 2002 by the INLA. Everyone who seems to have been punished has died."
There have been calls for calm after intense and subjective media coverage over the deaths, amid fears that it could encourage the wave of suicides to continue.
A spokesman for the Irish Republican Socialist Party, which is linked to the INLA, denied the organisation was in any way responsible for the deaths of the two teenagers.
According to the Association of Suicidology, there were some 140 deaths by suicide in the North in the past 12 months. Some 35 of these were under the age of 35, many of them teenagers.
Community workers, health professionals, clergy and political representatives have taken part in a public forum in Ardoyne to agree an urgent response to the problem.
It has been agreed to open a room in a community centre as a drop-in facility, with professional counselling services available both on a one-to-one basis and by telephone.
It is understood this will be an immediate response pending establishment of more long-term facilities for young people.