The rate of suicide among Travellers is up to five times that of the rest of the population, according to a new study published today.
The Suicide Among the Irish Traveller Community 2000-2006report was prepared by Mary Rose Walker, a social worker with Wicklow County Council, and funded by the Department of Justice's Traveller Interagency & Communications Fund.
The study reveals that between 2000 and 2006, the rate of suicide among Irish Travellers was over three times that of the total population, peaking in 2005 when it was over five times the national rate.
The actual number of deaths by suicide among Travellers during the period 2000 to 2006 was 74.
The research suggests that the loss of Traveller identity and culture amongst younger members of the community may also be playing a part in the rate of suicide. It also reveals that suicide among Travellers most often follows the death of someone close to the people who take their life.
"With recent changes in society, Travellers have had to learn to cope with increased hostility, difficulty with identity, loss of culture and traditions and lack of purpose in life," said Ms Walker.
"Given the existing vulnerabilities of Travellers today, factors such as alcohol or substance abuse, economic insecurity, violence, depression assume an additional risk level. It may therefore not be so surprising that an immediate crisis, such as death or marital conflict, can act as a trigger factor for suicide," she added.
For the total population, male suicide is four times as common as female suicide. However, among travellers, men are nine times more likely to die by suicide than women.
Over 65 per cent of Traveller suicides occurred among those under the age of 30 and 52 per cent had never married.
"Today, young Travellers have a lot more in common with their settled peers than their parents' generation did, and to a certain extent, there has been a loss of cultural traditions as they take on the values of mainstream society," said Ms Walker.
"However, public opinion of Travellers as inferior and as a threat has not changed, and Travellers face huge rejection from the settled population. Some attempt to conceal their Traveller identity completely. They are not fully accepted as part of settled society, they may no longer be firmly rooted in their own cultural and social traditions, and they have lost pride in their own ethnic identity.
Eighty per cent of death by suicide is by hanging, with poisoning being the second most used method at nine per cent, according to the report.
The sources of data used for the study include Local Authority social workers for Travellers, the Department of Environment and Local Government annual statistics of the National Traveller population and CSO data.
