Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Today, I want to raise something that is very difficult to talk about but must be talked about. My town of Duleek had the darkest of days in 2018 and 2019 when we suffered five young deaths by suicide. This morning, I am highlighting my birth parish of Denn in County Cavan, which has experienced three young deaths by suicide this past year, all of whom were neighbours. On Tuesday, I listened to Joe Finnegan of Northern Sound talking to the Heaslip family of Carrickaboy - Raymond, Maggie, Chloe and Finn. I heard about a young man, their son and brother, Eden Heaslip, a bright witty fellow with a great grá for music and cars. I heard about his Joe Canning Galway GAA jersey, his family farm and his willingness to stand up for others. I also heard about how he was kicked to the ground every day and how he was shouted at, "Go home to your own country", on account of his Protestant background. I heard about his head being physically held down soiled toilets, of him being pinched at lunch tables and boxed, and how the threats from his abusers were so great that he would not even enter his own town. I heard how the abuse followed him online, how he could not put a single thing up on social media without vile vicious comments being hurled at him and how his abusers would create new accounts to continue to harass him even after he had blocked them. I heard about how, after carrying a pain of the heart, a pain of his mind, that it left scars deep where no one could see. Eden came to think, "This is it, I have to put up with it. This is the way it is going to be." No one can live their life that way and, on 20 September, Eden Heaslip took his own life at the age of 18. No parent should have to bury their child. We have laws to protect employers from bullying in the workplace. Where are the laws to protect Eden? I ask us to hear the Heaslip family today. Can we do our duty as legislators and put a stop to this senseless suffering? Can we, please?

I heard Fr. Jason, the parish priest, talking this morning on Northern Sound about this particular child. Like so many parish priests in the country, including my own priest, Fr. John, he is instrumental in providing counselling for these young people. God bless them in their work. We really need to put wraparound services in local areas that are suffering such as my home parish of Denn and Duleek. Otherwise, it will be left to us community leaders to step in where the Government has failed. Let us not fail the Heaslip family. Let us not fail all those families who have suffered death by suicide in this country. There are too many.