Teen who lost dad to suicide wants schools to teach about mental health

A LONDONDERRY teenager whose father took his own life says mental health awareness must be taught in schools to help reduce Northern Ireland’s high suicide rate.

Oisin Quigley’s father Colm was 39 when he passed away seven years ago, leaving the then 12-year-old and his four siblings heartbroken.

Oisin, now 19 and a student at Preston University, says his father had been battling depression for some time.

“I remember a really bad sixmonth period before my dad died,” he recalled.

“My mother and father had been separated for about a year. My dad had come through a really rough time where he tried to take his own life. My uncle found him and got him to the hospital in time. That was on my sister’s birthday.

“I remember he was going to therapy and was living with his mother, and I would see him several times a week. I remember going to see him and there being a sort of absence and sadness that was constantly on him.

“I remember there was an advertisement for mental health on the television. It shows a man laughing and joking with his friends and when they leave it shows him taking off a happy face mask and placing it on the bathroom sink. He said that was exactly how he felt.

“He would very rarely have talked about it.

“Generally when we were around he was happy, but we did feel a difference.”

Oisin said the day he discovered his father had died is seared into his memory forever.

“I had just come back from my friend’s house. It was a Sunday. I had went home and had gone to my bedroom to do my homework. I had heard a bit of a commotion downstairs and my mother crying. She called me down. When I went into the living room she said ‘your daddy’s dead’.

“I remember just pushing her away as she was trying to hug me. I couldn’t comprehend it. I remember the day in black and white. I don’t