North Belfast priest Father Aidan Troy has urged young people in distress not to be afraid to seek assistance. He issued his appeal following the suicide of an 18- year-old woman in Belfast at the weekend.
Fiona Barnes from Divismore in west Belfast was found dead in City cemetery, Belfast, yesterday close to the grave of her boyfriend Michael McComb, who committed suicide 11 weeks ago.
He took his life in despair at the death of his 15-year-old sister Debbie in a so-called joyriding accident. She died after being struck by a stolen car in west Belfast in March 2002.
Mr Aidan Barnes said his daughter Fiona died of a "broken heart". She only turned 18 last week but did not celebrate her birthday. Mr Barnes said counselling had been organised for his daughter but she just could not escape from her sense of hopelessness.
He believed she had been thinking about taking her life for a long time. "She was broken-hearted over her boyfriend. She just couldn't handle it," he said yesterday.
Coincidentally, a special cross-community service was held in St Patrick's church in the city centre last night for families who had lost loved ones through suicide.
It was organised as part of the New Lodge festival in north Belfast by the PIPS initiative - Public Initiative for the Prevention of Self-harm and Suicide - which was named after 17-year-old Pip McTaggart from Ardoyne, who died through suicide last year.
The service was organised for all families who were touched by suicide but was precipitated by the cluster of 13 suicides of young people over an eight-week period in north Belfast earlier this year.
Father Troy, one of the speakers at the service who was called upon to provide religious support for many of the families, said it was important to do away with the stigma of suicide and that the Catholic Church had a major role to play in this regard.
"I think in the past the church did not have a proper understanding of the terrible pain of people who took their own lives," he said.
Father Troy in particular appealed to young people and anybody else suffering great inner distress to make contact with the churches or the statutory agencies that could assist them.
He said there was an onus on the churches and the agencies, which were doing great work, to make themselves available and to be easily contactable.
The SDLP's Ms Patricia Lewsley, sympathising with the Barnes family, said it was imperative that steps were taken to help young people.
"More resources must be channelled into counselling on the causes of suicide and offering another way out for our young people, who in many cases, don't believe they have one.
"Trained outreach officers should be placed in the community as a first point of contact for young people who may feel vulnerable, isolated and helpless," she said.
