Around 300 people gathered in the forecourt of the Bank of Ireland on College Green, Dublin, last night for a candle-lit vigil to remember friends and family members killed by suicide.
The event was organised by the suicide charity 3Ts to mark World Suicide Prevention Day. Some 450 people take their own lives in Ireland every year and, among young people, instances of suicide have increased four-fold in the last 20 years.
Speaking at the event, GAA president Seán Kelly said he felt Ireland was turning away from what really mattered.
"We are in danger of losing our values here. We are too concerned about the size of people's Mercedes and the possessions they have. We should be more inclusive, bring people in. People can be forgotten too easily," he said.
President Mary McAleese sent a message, read out at the vigil by Daniel Philbin Bowman. "For too long suicide was a taboo subject and those who lived under its dark cloud, or who finally fell victim to its onslaught, felt isolated from the rest of the community," she said.
"World Suicide Prevention Day publicly challenges us to show our commitment to the value of friendship and the connectedness which underpins our common humanity by inviting us to reach out to touch another's life of solitary dejection."
With people holding candles in memory of their loved ones, a minute's silence was observed in the rain.
Then a string quartet played in what was designed as an open show of grief and determination to reduce the numbers of suicide victims.