pieta house

‘You can’t miss someone you’ve never known.’ Perhaps. In music, we have heroes in head-spaces we can’t comprehend. We were recently rattled by the loss of Chris Cornell, and now, suddenly and just as tragically, the loss of Chester…

It's a raucous atmosphere in the NO ENCORE studio as Dave Hanratty and Colm O'Regan are joined by Dara Kiely and Daniel Fox of the wonderful Girl Band ahead of their Vicar Street headliner on February 17 in aid of Pieta House. On a…

Blue Monday. "The most depressing day of the year." It’s when we’ll see an influx of pieces talking about suicide, reaching out to services, and supporting each other. It’s one of two bi-annual media focuses on mental health alongside World…

My brother called me a fortnight ago, on a Saturday afternoon. He asked me if I knew of a certain guy from home - ‘home’ being rural Sligo. I said that yes, I did know of him. The image of his smiling face flashed into my mind. I asked my…

When I was 21, I had a really exciting opportunity to live and study in Vienna for a year. I was thrilled at the prospect – a year away by the Danube felt like a real adult step. Fast forward nine months and it was a very different story…

Dear Minister Varadkar, I invite you, for just a moment, to imagine a beating heart. The sound it makes. The steady, rhythmic thump-thump of a heart pumping to keep the body it exists in alive. Imagine that sound multiplied by 7,000. Let…

The article was written by someone I liked. By someone erudite and more importantly, compassionate.  Someone who understood mental illness. Who joked about it, but offered insight. And he wrote about suicide.  About the comfort it can offer…

Last year, the European Child Safety Alliance (ECSA) found that Ireland had the second highest rate of male suicide in Europe among young people. The report also found that young Irish women under the age of nineteen were most likely to…