The causes and consequences of suicide were constantly being pushed to the forefront of public awareness by the late Dr Kelleher, who established the National Suicide Research Foundation in January 1995. Last year 433 people in the Republic committed suicide, compared to 378 the year before, according to the Central Statistics Office. This is a 14.6 per cent increase in one year.
The vast majority of people who took their own lives were male, with 355 men committing suicide compared with 78 women.
The graph each year has been rising steadily and in some categories, spectacularly. Suicide competes with cancer, for example, as the primary cause of death among 15 to 24-year-olds in this State, giving us one of the most rapidly accelerating rates of youth suicide in the world. More 15 to 24-year-olds committed suicide than any other age category, with 103 (or 23.8 per cent of the overall total) taking their own lives in 1997.
Eight children aged between five and 14 years took their own lives last year, a fourfold increase on the previous year. In an effort to combat this rise, the Government announced in June that it was set up a National Educational Psychological Service, available to all primary and post-primary schools.
In general, Dr Kelleher has estimated that over the past 30 years the suicide rate among women has doubled, with the rate among men quadrupling. The incidence among women appears to have levelled off, but this is not the case with men.
Dr Kelleher has also said in the past that many "accidental" deaths were in fact suicides. Other experts would multiply the official figure by a factor of two or even three. In 1993 the Samaritans handled 200,000 calls, of which 23 per cent were actively discussing suicide.
Dr Kelleher was originally encouraged in his research into suicide and attempted suicide in 1994 by the then the Minister for Health, Mr Brendan Howlin. His research was funded by the Department of Health and the Southern Health Board. Subsequently the Health Research Board agreed to fund the Foundation in 1996 for a five-year period.
Dr Kelleher was particularly interested in youth suicide, especially young males. He recently examined links between waning religious practice and suicide, but found in rural areas where Mass attendance had remained high, there were also high suicide rates.
A number of recommendations on tackling the rising suicide figures were contained in the National Task Force on Suicide, which was proposed by Dr Kelleher and reported in January.
The work of the Cork-based National Suicide Research Foundation will carry on, according to its co-ordinator, Ms Eileen Williamson. The foundation, established in January 1995, employs a research psychiatrist, statisticians, trainee psychologist, trainee sociologist and data entry personnel.
At present the foundation is involved as one of 20 centres throughout Europe in a World Health Organisation study on suicide.