In Northern Ireland, The Troubles Linger
LURGAN, Northern Ireland — On a cold February night in 2001, as Joe Holbeach was jogging along the shores of Newcastle in Northern Ireland, he imagined being taken in by the tide and drowning. Days later, he gazed down at the steep drop, trying to find the courage to jump.
He didn’t, but like many other survivors of the paramilitary violence during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Twenty years after the Good Friday Agreement ended the Troubles, Northern Ireland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world.
Experts point to poverty, underfunded mental health services and a recent uptick in paramilitary violence. But a leading cause, they say, is PTSD.
Mr. Holbeach is among the thousands who were caught in the crossfire of Northern Ireland’s guerrilla war, in which bombings, shootings and maimings were part of life for nearly three decades.
Another day in 2001,
Mr. Holbeach said, “I cracked and went straight to the deepest point of the Craigavon Lake and threw myself in.” He added: “I wanted to drown. I wanted to die.”
Northern Ireland has the highest suicide rate in the United Kingdom, with 18.5 suicides per 100,000 people in 2017, putting it among the top 15 countries in the world, the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency found. The rate for men is nearing 30. The rate in England was half that, at 9.2 per 100,000 people.
The suicide rates in Northern Ireland have doubled since the region’s militant groups struck the peace deal.
Siobhan O’Neill, a professor at Ulster University, said, “When the Troubles ended, many people struggled
Allison McCann contributed reporting. to make sense of what all that fighting was about and what had been achieved.”
The uncertainty over Brexit and the collapse of Northern Ireland’s power-sharing coalition have threatened the region’s fragile peace. Paramilitary-style punishment shootings and beatings — primarily to punish young people for things like petty crimes and drug dealing — rose 60 percent last year, an increase that experts say has contributed to the high suicide rate.
As he was drowning that day in 2001, Mr. Holbeach had flashbacks to November 8, 1987, the day he went to the town of Enniskillen to attend a memorial service for British soldiers and a bomb planted by Provisional I.R.A. militants exploded near him.
The attack killed 12 people and injured more than 60.
“I dug myself out of the rubble,” Mr. Holbeach said. “Stepping over bodies flat on the ground like cardboard, blood and broken limbs everywhere.” Today, a silent and stoic response surrounds suicide, especially in Catholic communities where ending one’s own life is widely considered a sin.
Eamonn Baker, who works for a peace building foundation, is still haunted by the events he experienced in his hometown, Derry, on January 30, 1972 — Bloody Sunday, one of the most violent days of the conflict.
He dealt with the trauma by turning to alcohol. But now he takes a positive approach by working to bring people from both sides of the conflict together to establish a dialogue.
For many, the process of reconciliation has been cathartic, but many still struggle with their emotions.
“The past sits like a weight on the present,” Mr. Baker said. “It’s a big challenge to live in the present.”