Northern Ireland’s Suicide Epidemic- ‘The Ceasefire Babies’
‘The Ceasefire Babies’ was an article published in the book, ‘Lost, Found, Remembered’, by Lyra Mc Kee. The book was published in March 2020 and is a collection of articles written by the journalist who was murdered in Derry in April 2019. Lyra was known for basing a lot of her work on the consequences of the Troubles.
In this article, Lyra noted that more people took their lives in the 16 years following the Troubles than died during them. From the beginning of the Troubles in 1969 to the historic peace agreement in 1998, over 3,600 people were killed. In the 16 years that followed, until the end of 2014, 3,709 people died by suicide.
The Ceasefire Babies was what they called us. Those too young to remember the worst of the terror because we were either in nappies or just out of them when the Provisional IRA ceasefire was called. I was four, Jonny was three. We were the Good Friday Agreement generation, destined to never witness the horrors of war but to reap the spoils of peace. The spoils just never seemed to reach us.
Lyra Mc Kee
There is a direct link between experiencing conflict-related traumatic events and suicide rates. Although many of those who committed suicide in the years following the Ceasefire weren’t old enough to remember the entirety of the Troubles, they were still accounted for in the alarmingly high suicide rates that followed the Ceasefire. There is increasing research into the intergenerational transmission of trauma.
People living in areas that were previously affected by the Troubles face high crime rates and poverty. Many of the parents/ grandparents and older relatives of young people in Northern Ireland will have witnessed the Troubles firsthand, undoubtedly affecting their ability to relate to others.
The tragic irony of life in Northern Ireland today is that peace seems to have claimed more lives than war ever did.
Lyra Mc Kee
In 2020 suicide rates are as high as ever. A report by Samaritans revealed that suicide rates in Northern Ireland are higher than other UK nations and the Republic of Ireland.
NI residents are almost twice as likely to commit suicide in comparison to those living in England, with the highest rate among men aged 25 to 29 and women aged 40 to 49.
