Depression Kills But It Is Not Here To Kill Us

‘In a dark time, the eye begins to see’ Theodore Roethke

The real lives of those we know, need and love dwell far beyond their faces that are visible to the naked eye. For many, their authentic selves and truth are hidden behind a layer of masks, masks wisely and unconsciously created by each individual in response to the environments and outer worlds they inhabit. Each person is the sole inhabitant and silent witness to their own inner worlds and the dream that dwells within the heart of each human being is to be able to remove their masks and live and express their own truths and authentic self.

The poet David Whyte says "The soul would much rather fail at it's own life than to succeed at someone else's". As long as we continue to create the environments where this dream cannot become a reality, we will continue to have people choosing to end their own lives. 

 

 

In Ireland, we need to draw aside the veils of illusion and see what the reality conceals. Officially, nearly 800 people on the island of Ireland ended their lives through suicide last year. From speaking with nearly every agency and type of person involved in this area over the last 12 months, all would unofficially estimate the figure to be much higher and well beyond a thousand. 
 

Based on the fact that men are more like to end their life through suicide, the focus for the most part over the last couple of years has been on the emotional distress that men are enduring. Research shows that the rate of parasuicide, where someone tries to end their life but doesn't succeed, is three to one in favour of females. Over 60,000 people are admitted to A&E departments each year with self harming injuries and the majority of these are females, thus shattering the myth that our females are more effective at dealing with or experiencing less emotional distress than their male counterparts.

What of the countless thousands that are living lives of silent misery and quiet desperation. Maya Angelou, the American poet, once wrote "There is no greater agony than the bearing of an untold story within you". Many of these people live an unnecessary daily existence of pain and suffering because of their fear of sharing their ‘untold story’ of depression, anxiety, panic attacks, self harming and so on. Their fear arises from the ever present dark and omnipresent stigma that surrounds emotional wellbeing issues.
 

The renowned British medical journal 'The Lancet' recently published research which highlighted the fact that 'depression is the leading cause of dis-ability in Ireland'. The World Health Organisation says that by 2020, depression will be the second leading cause of disability for human beings worldwide and the number one reason for absenteeism in the workplace. Our country, Government, educational bodies, medical institutions, sporting organisations, workplaces and communities need to draw back the veils of illusion and see what the reality conceals.
 

A person doesn’t ever want to end their life but they do want to end the horrific pain and suffering that permeates every part of their being when experiencing depression. The ability to give and receive love at this time is quenched from the strength of the blackness within, the consequences of your actions if you decide to end your pain permanently and the effect it will have on those around doesn't enter your thoughts as they can’t weave their way through the heavy clouds that seem to have an endless depth of darkness that engulf and surround your mind.
 

Suicide is a permanent ending of pain and an eternal architect of pain. It is pure and utter carnage that reverberates throughout individuals, families and communities that lose a loved one through suicide. If a picture could be taken to capture the devastation that saturates the inner worlds of these people, it might resemble the images of chaos and destruction in the aftermath of a bomb explosion in a busy street. It's been my experience through meeting many left bereft by suicide that the human psyche can come to terms, in time, with the death of a loved one through natural causes but it has immense difficulty finding peace with the loss of a loved one through suicide.
   

I heard a psychologist recently say "we must declare a war on depression". I'm thankful he was never my therapist and I would have deep concern for the people that are clients of his. The weapon we most need in the exploration of depression is understanding. The Polish physicist Marie Curie once said "Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less". 
 

And now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less. We owe it to the lives and memory of Robin Williams, of Galway hurler Niall Donohue, of Fine Gael TD Shane McEntee. We owe it to the thousands more we have lost to suicide and continue to lose each day (3000 a day worldwide) whose graves are scattered across our nation, young, old and in between. We owe it to those people that are never, ever spoken about, the many who fail to succeed in ending their lives but whose bodies and brains are permanently damaged for the remainder of their and their families lives.

We owe it to the bereaved who ask daily 'why?' and may never get an answer, we owe it to the silent sufferers, we owe it to the people who consistently and courageously seek support and search for meaning and hope but are still engulfed in darkness, we owe it to our Mothers and Fathers, sons and daughters, Grandmothers and Grandfathers, friends and neighbours, we owe it to our children yet unborn to deepen our understanding of depression, to deepen our understanding of suicide but more than anything, to deepen our understanding of ourselves.
 

A human existence is the most complex story of all, the endless flow of thoughts in our mind, the hidden world of the unconscious, our dreams, fantasies and imagination. We need to encourage the befriending of this beautiful complexity. As a species, we have explored the deepest and highest parts of our Earth, we have travelled vast distances to other planets but we have disastrously neglected our inner worlds.

We need to go on a deeper voyage within, exploring the inner vastness and caverns of our minds, hearts and souls. The task of true knowing is slow and at times gruelling but must be pursued and encouraged by individuals and subsequently society. It's the road less travelled but the one that will make all the difference and perhaps the answers we seek to our deepest questions are contained within the silent depths of these new frontiers and unchartered territories.
 

There are many hidden agendas in the area of mental health and emotional wellbeing that are operating to deepen our insecurities and fears and persuade us to be hopeless in the face of depression.

Depression kills but it is my belief that it is not here to kill us. The journey to wellness requires time and patience and is full of difficult but rich and liberating learning. There is no one path, each person has to begin and create their own but the giving of support (not advice unless requested), compassion and unconditional love on this journey from others is as important as the gift of your next breath. It's impossible to walk that path on your own. No one can walk another person's path for them but they can certainly walk it with them. We can and we need to walk it with each other.
 

 I have encountered a myriad of situations, both in my own and through meeting and sharing that journey with many, many others, to say that there is no such thing as a hopeless person or hopeless situation.
 

We have this incredible capacity as human beings to endure, adapt and grow through the challenges that life throws at us and to be able to find meaning in our wrenching pain and suffering. Finding the courage to begin the journey, discovering meaning in your depression and coaxing harmony and clarity from the chaos of your inner worlds is only one aspect of the journey. For some, the bigger challenge can arrive when that meaning reveals itself for it will ask you to emerge in to your outer worlds that we all share and be true and real to yourself and to others in living out your own unique, human existence.   
 

 I don't believe in the word 'recovery' when I think of depression or my journey through what was a decade of internal horror and suffering as a teenager and young man with panic attacks, depression, self harming and the most damaging of all, believing my worth and value as a human being was determined by the opinions of others and my achievements or failures in school or on the sports field.

The word recovery suggests you return to a previous state of wellness or being. For me, that is not the true purpose of depression. Depression forced me down a path, a path I initially feared, which led me to witnessing the powerful freedom that flourishes within when I drew aside my own veils of illusion and began to see the world and myself anew from the solidity and sanctuary of my own real self, where my worth and value were determined through the authentic lens of my own eyes and where I was able to dissolve the old cages that had confined me in an unlived life and become the sculptor and not the sculpted of my life.

Individuals, communities, Governments and countries all have finite resources when it comes to money to create professional support services for people with their physical health and emotional wellbeing challenges. History and the present day has taught us that emotional wellbeing has and will remain for a long time to come a vastly underfunded, under researched and under resourced area of the health service. To blame others though is to remove accountability and the power we each possess as individuals to create real and lasting change in this aspect of life. 

The world of suicide is complex and there may appear to be no easy solutions. One thing is certain though and perhaps even simple, the fundamental need of each person to be loved and to be able to love unconditionally. As human beings, we have infinite reservoirs when it comes to kindness, compassion and love.

The Sufi poet Hafiz wrote 2,500 years ago

'Jump to your feet,
 Wave your fists,
 Threaten and warn the world.
 That your heart can no longer live,
 Without real and authentic love'.

Maybe it's as simple as that...

In the words of Auden

 "Either we love or we die"  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
   

 

'Coming Home' To The Truth Of Your Real Self

When Isaac Newton was trying to discover the mystery of white light, one can only imagine the wonder and excitement he experienced when he placed a prism in it’s path that revealed the vast spectrum of colours contained within. Previously thought of as being an entity of it’s own, he discovered the essence of light was the amalgamation of several different colours.

We don’t need a prism to recreate this amazing experience today, nature takes care of it in her own mystical way. Each rainbow is a glimpse into the realm of the invisible world that surrounds us as daylight hits a water droplet to display the secret parquet of colours that dwell within light. Gazing at a rainbow captures the heart and fires the imagination as we amaze at its beauty and wonder and elusiveness.

White light is a powerful symbol within the human species, especially for those whom are members of the Catholic Church. People whom have near death experiences often recall seeing a ‘white light’. Jesus is often represented in paintings and other images with his body luminous from a white light emanating from within. One of the central moments in Christian teachings is the transfiguration of Jesus on Mount Tabor where he begins to shine with white light and become radiant upon the mountain. The teachings describe this as the pivotal point at which human nature meets God.   

White light doesn’t show favour to any one spectrum of colour over the other. It doesn’t discriminate between the richness of its red or the vibrancy of its yellow. It values and appreciates equally all the different constituents contained within its  structure for it knows that without any one of these, it ceases to exist in its purest form and can’t fulfil its duty to bring to life and to view all the majesty and splendour that pertains in this planet we call Earth.

Is there a powerful message contained within the purity of white light and the magnificence of a rainbow for us as human beings. Are they enlightening and informing us that unless we as a species begin to treat equally and without discrimination the vast spectrum of human beings that exist within our planet, beings with different personalities and characteristics to their existence, people of diverse religious faiths, people of no faith, people with different coloured skin, people whose relationships involve members of the opposite sex, same sex or no sex, that unless we can begin to fully understand and cherish our differences and uniqueness as individuals and celebrate and embrace the myriad of common desires that we all share, primary among them to love and be loved,  that until that day arrives, then we can never as a species reach the pivotal point at which human nature and human beings can merge their independent spectrums of light and stand out in their own true radiance, dwelling within that flowing beauty of pure white light and achieve fully our boundless potential as spiritual beings.

Whether Jesus Christ was the son of God or just an incredibly evolved human being is a discussion for another day but his constant message throughout his life was ‘to love your neighbour, as yourself’. Sadly, in the church, they conveniently forgot to teach and affirm the last part of his original message, to love ourselves. It was wise of them to do that because the person that is in love with themselves, not in a narcissistic way where they believe the world revolves around them but in a way that they come in to an awareness of their own innate worth and immense value as a human being, independent of anything they may have achieved or not achieved in their life and the opinions and judgements of others, will not allow themselves to be controlled or dictated to by any religion or organisation.   

There is nothing more powerful or with a greater capacity for freedom in this world than the human self and  this self always wants to be free to live its own life and express all of its vast expansiveness, it’s emotional self, social self, intellectual self, physical self and sexual self to name but a few.

For those people whose sexual expression encompasses the loving of a member of the same gender, it can be a difficult and challenging journey before you arrive at a point where you can find joy in your sexuality and fully embrace and live this aspect of your life.

Depression forced me on a pilgrimage of exploration through the deep valleys, high mountains and forests of the unknown of my interior life, a journey that continues to this day and will until my last breadth is taken. I’ve come to appreciate and befriend the beautiful complexity of my inner worlds and realise that the journey and navigating of life is a path through many forests of the unknown but that hidden within the silent depths of these sacred places are many of the answers I seek to the deeper questions of my life.

As I began to emerge from the darkest periods of my depression, an experience that lasted from my early teens through to my mid twenties, and began to come into harmony with my own voice and more solid in my own sense of self, the old cages that had confined me to an un-lived life began to dissolve and new frontiers of possibility and invitations for growth re-awakened within my soul.

One of those invitations was in relation to my sexuality. The task of true knowing takes time and is challenging but once a glimpse of your real and authentic self is experienced, once you come to see the defences you have built and the limitations you have accepted in your life to prevent further inner, silent wounds, you realise you will never again be truly satisfied with your old way of being, the emptiness of false living so that those around you will not be upset.  

‘This above all’, says Shakespeare in Hamlet, ‘to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night, the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man’.

It’s at this moment that the support of others becomes crucial because being real in what in many ways is an unreal world can be a terrifying experience. At this vulnerable time, a person may only require the presence and kindness and love of a friend to enable them to summon their courage and do whatever it is they have to do.   

When I reached this point in my life, I often read the poem by Mary Oliver called ‘The Journey’

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late enough,
and a wild night,
and the road full
of fallen branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

          

Expressing an attraction to a member of the same gender is not ‘coming out’ of the closet, it’s about be-coming true to your own self, answering your sacred and precious self’s silent whispering and call from deep within, re-aligning your inner and outer worlds to the tune and rhythm and beat of your own drum and returning home to the sanctuary and dignity of your soul where the silence and stillness of an empty church sit side by side with the energy and fire of a rampant volcano.

 

In Ireland, there may not be groups attending events waving banners opposing homosexuality, there may not be gangs stalking the streets and hunting down people attracted to members of the same sex and torturing or killing them like there are in other parts of the world but in definite, subtle ways, there are subliminal messages lingering in the atmosphere of our society and are absorbed and seep into the minds and actions of individuals that being in the minority in terms of the expression of your sexuality means you are somehow ‘less than’ as a human being.


The words used by our young people in schools and coaches of sports teams to describe a boy or man as weak, the stereotyping in public forums of what it is to be a ‘gay’ man, Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act which ensures legalised discrimination against people labelled transgender, bisexual, lesbian and gay in the education and healthcare sectors, the inequality under the law for those whom choose to marry, all in their own explicit way combine to  espouse and maybe unintentionally, certainly encourage and give fuel to the continued ‘less than’ message. Nearly all of these actions find their sources in the echoes of previous generations where the shackling and repression of the human spirit and self was enforced and liberation and the championing of the uniqueness and differences of each individual was denied.

Sadly, for some individuals that continue to promote this message, they have failed to emerge from their shells of antiquity, continuing to live the life of others, their voices not their own but belonging to an era long gone. ‘Truth alone will endure’ says Gandhi, ‘all the rest will be washed away before the tide of time’. Tide and time waits for no man and despite the efforts of some to cling to the past, the truth of ‘all men being created equal’ will always endure.      

For some, the discovery that they are attracted to a member of the same sex can be a tortuous experience. Maya Angelou once said ‘There is no greater agony than the bearing of an untold story within you’. There is a certain joy in remaining hidden but it is a terrible tragedy if the real you can never be found. For many reasons and ones which are unique to each individual, some people have to de-press their attraction to a fellow man or woman and live lives of quiet desperation, silent misery and dark depression. The agony of their untold stories is carried to their graves, either through natural death or the ending of their lives through suicide.


No human being emerges from their mother’s womb feeling fearful and anxious about themselves, feeling frightened about being true to themselves, feeling ‘less than’ as a human being, feeling they have to hide their love. Its society that creates the culture and atmosphere that makes people feel like that and society is only ever a collection of individuals. In Ireland, the saying goes ‘It takes a community to raise a child’ so in various ways, we all carry a portion of shame for the fact that some people within our society feel they have to end their precious life because of whom they choose to love.

The theme of Cork Pride in 2014 is about celebrating heroes. If the word hero encompasses the fact that behind the veil of each human being and hero is the reality that each carries his own flaws and shadows within the beautiful complexity of their interior world, that no human being or hero is ever a finished thing, that because of the vast expansiveness and boundless depth within their souls, we can only ever glimpse or know about a small portion of their life story, then we have many heroes in our midst, some well known public figures and others whose actions and deeds may never garner the headlines but whom touch people’s lives in profound and meaningful ways.


David Norris proved to be a beacon of light in a very dark Ireland for many in years gone by and he has passed the torch he carried with such Olympic endeavour in to the capable hands of Jerry Buttimer and John Lyons whose proud voices ring true and loud around the hallowed halls of power in Dail Eireann. Ruairi Quinn and Alan Shatter, with support from the Fine Gael and Labour parties have furthered the cause of the minority during their terms in office. Eileen Gamble bravely continues to highlight the plight of teachers whom can still lose their jobs because of whom they choose to love and Colm O’Gorman’s reasoned and measured points of view during many a debate in his pursuit of equality for married couples stirs the heart with joy. Rory O’Neill through the power and eloquence of his voice and the force and magic of his personality inspires all whom hear or watch him. The many organisations  like the Other Place in Cork, GLEN and Belongto continue to be sanctuaries of support and shelters of love, kindness and hope for many people where they can discover their own courage to be true to themselves.  

Donal Og is a trailblazer for sportsmen the world over and the warm acceptance from his fellow players and the watershed speech from Dublin footballer Ger Brennan from the steps of the Hogan Stand in Croke Park where he thanked the players girlfriends and boyfriends, sends out a potent message to all people in our society from the most powerful sporting organisation in the country that it’s ok to be gay and certainly ok to be gay in the GAA.

All of these and many more continue to be rainbows in the cloud of discrimination, violence, inequality and intolerance that still engulf our country and world towards individuals in society.

When the artist Gilbert Baker designed the colours for the flag to represent ‘Pride’ back in 1978, he chose well. As discovered by Newton, the colours of the rainbow, fashioned from the forces of nature deep in the universe, combine to produce the brilliant white light that brings life and beauty to all things on our planet. We too have come from the stars and the white light, the oxygen we breathe, the carbon in our muscles, the calcium in our bones, the iron in our blood, all of them were forged from the fiery hearts of long vanished stars. We are pilgrims on a voyage through an earthly plane, spiritual beings whom have stopped off on our cosmic journey to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share.

The prism of life has split us all into different colours and forms but the rainbow and white light teaches us that none are more important or more equal than the other. Somewhere, deep in the caverns of our being, is the memory that we all come from the same source of white light, hetero or homosexual, Christian or Buddhist, male and female, Catholic or Protestant. Our quest surely is to remember and live out that truth during our time on Earth. There is a hunger and deep desire within every human heart that propels us to want to return home to the light of our real selves.

 If we can, if we can reach the point where all spectrums of our people are valued equally and combine our beautiful complexities of colours together, the white light of truth and love will not only exist in the heavans but will radiate out on this Earth for all of us to bask and dwell in. 

The ‘Pride’ march is not just a march to represent individuals whom are labelled gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. It’s a march to represent all of humanity and its continued pursuit of equality and harmony for all.

I wish you all well on our continued journey together, home to the pure white light and beauty of our real selves.     

This piece was initially written for the Cork LGBT Pride Festival Magazine for August 2014   

                       

        

 

Pieta House, Cycle Against Suicide and the GPA leading us into 'forests of the unknown'...

I’m not a great sleeper. Sleep has been one of the few casualties since my experiences with severe depression and anxiety during my teens and early twenties. Whilst everything else has recovered well, sleep is taking that bit longer to resolve so the phone doesn’t wake me when it rings at 4am. 21 year old Eric’s name flashes across the screen.

We have been sharing e-mails over the last couple of weeks and one phone call. From his first mail, it was obvious Eric was in a dark place in his life. It’s obvious from the tone and emotion in his voice on the phone now that the darkness has finally emptied his reserves of fight and flight has now become a very real possibility for him. His family took him to the A&E department a few hours ago because he told them he was feeling suicidal.

A couple of hours later, he is discharged with an appointment to see a psychiatrist in 3 weeks. Instantly, I’m reminded of a conversation I had with a friend of mine recently who is a member of the Garda Siochana. He explained to me of how he is sick and tired of getting calls to family homes in the middle of the night and bringing a person who is in a distressed state to an A&E Department and a few hours later, receiving another call and cutting the same person down from a tree or pulling them out of a river.

Eric doesn’t have three weeks now. He may not have three hours. We chat over the phone as the darkness turns to dawn outside. I tell Eric about Pieta House. How I was invited by Joan Freeman to visit their new Pieta House in Cork City and how I instantly fell in love with the place and why I did.

When my parents were taking me to see various different psychiatrists during my difficulties, I always disliked the atmosphere and coldness that permeated these buildings and nothing reflected this better that the white walls and blinding white lights in the ceiling of these offices. You almost felt like you were a product being brought in to a sterile cleanroom in a lab, about to be inspected and dissected by some ‘expert’ who would find what fault you had, produce a fancy and intellectual sounding label/diagnosis that would keep them happy but be never adequate to reflect the immense depth within each human being.

I explained to Eric the warmth of Pieta and it’s staff, how the therapist sits on a soft chair that results in them looking up to you, almost in an act of worship at your courage in sharing your story, how the building is like a family home with warm light and even warmer people. There are no ‘experts’ in Pieta on another person’s life or their solutions to it, or at least I hope there are not, but people who will sit, and listen, and be with you during this difficult time in an unconditionally loving and non judgemental way.

Eric has been through the Pieta system now and it has helped him to emerge from his period where he didn't wanted to finish his life but to end the immense darkness and pain he was engulfed in. Eric has a long road ahead of him that will be full of rich and difficult but ultimately liberating learning. Because of Pieta and a support group around him, he now carries that magical ingredient that sustains us all at periods during our life, he has hope back in his life again.  

Niamh Connolly, Lorna Ferncombe, young Ruairi Conway and all the other volunteers and people of Dungarvan should be very, very proud of themselves this weekend. Dungarvan is a town that is riven with anxiety and worry at the moment with the high rate of suicide it is currently experiencing. The ‘Darkness Into Light’ 5km Walk/Run in aid of Pieta House was an opportunity for the people of Dungarvan to show how much they care and are not indifferent about this situation and by God, did they show it. It was an event that was organised with military precision but enveloped by an atmosphere of kindness, compassion and empathy, qualities formed in the most powerful and strongest part of the human heart that can reach in to the darkest corner of a human mind and re-kindle hope and illuminate new and exciting pathways where previously there was only dead, dark, landscapes.

The thousands that attended each individually carried their own unique reasons for being present but it was a gathering of the masses, a community fusing together in a powerful, yellow glow of solidarity and support for it’s fellow people. Niamh and Lorna and Ruairi are beacons of hope and light in a community that needs it now more than ever. It’s because of them and many others that Eric still has his path and journey of hope ahead of him. I believe the people of Dungarvan won’t allow the energy and passion witnessed last Saturday morning end there and will continue their quest to provide similar paths for those many souls enshrouded by inner darkness in their town.       

Jim Breen and his Cycle Against Suicide organisation have been blazing a trail of awareness around Ireland over the last fortnight. In a world where most people are trying hard to fit in but were actually born to stand out, Jim Breen is standing out, standing out from the herd of silence that exists around suicide and cycling out to the people carrying with him the magical mantra of ‘it’s ok to not feel ok and absolutely ok to ask for help’. He and his volunteers have been fanning the flames of hope for those who may feel hopeless and radiating some light for those whose life may be cloaked in darkness. One of those volunteers, Brenawn O’Connell, tragically lost his life last Wednesday in Donegal. ‘A single candle can light a thousand more’ the Buddhist saying says. Brenawn O’Connell will have touched the lives of many in ways that he will never know and he and Jim and the rest of their army of volunteers will have lit a lot of candles of hope for many thousands more.    

I travelled to New York recently to give a talk in Yonkers, organised by the genial Kerry woman Orla Kelleher who is CEO of the Aisling Community Centre there. It was a real eye opener to witness how the stigma around depression and emotional wellbeing issues is very strong in a country where I would have thought it to be much different. Whilst there, I gave a presentation to the Gaelic Player’s Association New York Advisory Board at a lunch organised by Teresa Ryan, wife of Peter, the deputy Irish consulate and a man possessed with dynamic energy and enthusiasm for all things Irish.

 It was obvious that Dessie and Donal Og have crafted a strong impression on these people of what the GPA and the GAA is about for they spoke with great respect, almost reverence, and enthusiasm about the ethos of the GAA and the skill, courage and athleticism of it’s players. These are serious and influential businessmen but after sitting in front of Miriam O’Callaghan and baring your soul live on National Television, everything else is a piece of cake after that.

I wanted these people to be aware that their support of the GPA was not just about enhancing player’s sporting lives but also about saving lives. The GPA recognises how sport is probably the number one priority in it’s players lives but it has this wonderful, holistic outlook that realises there are far more aspects that encompass their members worlds than just their sport, that they wear and are more than their County jersey and how important it is to not neglect their education, jobs, relationships and inner worlds.

 I informed the Advisory Board of the 24 hour counselling service that is available to the GPA members. I told them the inspiring and heart warming stories of  Alan O’Mara (Cavan footballer) and Niall McNamee (Offaly Footballer) who have utilised this service and are now radiating light on hitherto unspoken subjects and sharing their messages of hope that are filtering out to all members of the communities of Ireland, not just GAA members.

Somebody described Donal Og as a ‘GAA capitalist’ recently but if he and Dessie and Teresa can continue to capitalise on these people’s expertise to help generate the funds needed to provide the counselling and player development services for the GPA’s members that have helped Niall and Alan and more and will help many more in the future, then I’m very enthused for them to carry on ‘capitalising’.    

On my journey’s and travels around Ireland to different events, I witness the growing momentum amongst our people to see and embrace change in how we are within ourselves and with each other.

People are becoming more keenly aware of the urgency and necessity for real and positive change and are growing increasingly deaf to the worn platitudes of our authority figures in the country.There are more people realising that the dogmas and ways of old are no longer acceptable and more again are finding their own voice and throwing off the shackles of repression that have manacled generations of our people.

The words of Mandela ring true ‘Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate but that we are powerful beyond measure’. We need our leaders in Government, schools, churches, sporting and health organisations to harness this energy and reflect this growing momentum in their actions. The silence from our leaders in Government in the area of suicide and mental health and emotional wellbeing needs to change. It would be wise of them to call in Jim Breen, to call in Joan Freeman, to call in Siobhan Earley, people that are the  living embodiment of the best qualities of the Irish people, creativity, courageous, kindness, innovative, imaginative, bold and brave.      

Our students don’t need to know more about maths or physics or computer science. They need to know more about themselves, be allowed to be more in touch with and express their real selves and live their own  lives from the inside out. From this place, they will be far more productive, effective and happy engineers, physicists, poets, computer scientists, electricians or whatever path they decide to choose. It’s more self awareness classes they and our world needs. 

I was asked a really good question in America. Showing the latest research which proves that despite what we might believe, there is less violence and poverty in the world now than ever before, people are living longer than ever before and have a better standard of living than ever before, there is more groups and organisations in the area of Mental Health than ever before, this man asked why is it that suicide is increasing amongst our people? I suggested to him that perhaps the figures might be far higher were it not for these organisations but on the flight home, I wasn’t satisfied with my response.

I reflected on his question and I think it’s a good question for us all to reflect on. My answer now to him would be that the challenges confronting our world in dealing with the emotional wellbeing issues of our people are vast and complex but they are challenges that need to be explored and embraced for the World Health Organisation says that by 2030, depression will be the number one health concern for human beings in the World, overtaking cancer and heart disease and all the others.

That we need to look at depression and anxiety and addictions and wellbeing issues with new eyes and a new vision that reflects the incredible capacity for a human being to make sense of and find understanding and meaning in their suffering and be open to the idea that there may be a wisdom, beyond what we have yet failed to recognise as a species, contained within our internal difficulties and that they may be an invitation for growth and transformation from deep within us.

I would say to him that no matter how advanced our world becomes in terms of technology, no matter how much or little money people have, no matter how long they live, the cravings of the human soul and spirit and heart will never change. The inward yearning of each human being to be valued and appreciated for their own unique and sacred presence, the desire to love whom we want to love and the desire to be loved, the longing to remove our masks and be whom we really are and not the false image we continually portray to the outer world, the aspiration to be free to express our immense vastness and limitless capabilities will always be at the core of every person you encounter.

That as a species, we need to go on a deeper journey inwards and encourage the befriending and exploration of the complexity of our inner lives, to not fear our minds and soul that are full of high mountains, deep valleys and forests of the unknown. That the answers we seek may be hidden in the silent depths of these forests and that by entering these unchartered territories, we could discover fresh pathways that lead us as a culture to frontiers of new possibility and understanding in how we are within ourselves and with each other that will empower us to enrich both our inner and outer worlds for all of our people and our environment.

Pieta House, the Cycle Against Suicide and the GPA have summoned their courage and ingenuity and are leading us into these forests of the unknown and for that, we can all be thankful.

I wish you all well on our continued journey together into the forests of the unknown and the light of our own, real selves.              

My Address to the GAA's Inaugural National Health and Wellbeing Seminar

During the Summer of 2013, 14 of my club colleagues and I took part in an event to cycle from Malin to Mizen Head over four days to raise funds for our new club development. As we departed Donegal, leapt through Leitrim, sailed through Sligo, rolled along the roads of Roscommon and galloped across Galway over the first couple of days, we spoke amongst ourselves of how truly beautiful our country is when viewed from the perspective of the open road and the slower pace of a bike.

 We crossed through Clare and limped on through Limerick, climbed Molls Gap and descended the other side, gliding into Glengariff and finally motored on to Mizen Head. Each village and town had its differences, its own unique identity and landmarks that set it apart from all the others. However, there was one constant throughout our journey. 

That constant was the GAA fields proudly located in each and every hamlet, village, town and city we traversed. Some were new developments, pristine fields and clubhouses with the most up to date amenities for its players and administrators whilst others reflected the natural wear and tear of a busy and oft used facility, whose ball alley walls were eroded from the impact of a million sliothars as a result of the daily practice of its players to fine tune their silky skills, the same way a coastline erodes from the daily waves of the ocean. You could feel the history and romance in these old venues, the thousands of souls who must have graced these sacred grounds, performing feats of magic and bravery with their camans and feet and hands. Similarly, you could visualise the new local heroes that were going to emerge in the modern club developments and create their own history, memories and unbreakable bonds of friendships over the coming decades.

The sights of these venues heartened us and filled us all with a renewed pride and enthusiasm, knowing that we are a part of an organisation that is far bigger than us all individually but connects and binds our communities and our people in a myriad of tangible and intangible ways.  

An organisation that is owned by no one but belongs to all. An organisation that reaches from the top of Malin Head to the tip of Mizen head and everywhere in between.

 An organisation whose membership spans the ages and the sexes, where there is an outlet for the athlete and the administrator, the electrician and the engineer, the employed and unemployed, the old and the young.

It’s for these reasons and many more that there is no organisation better placed within our island to embrace the challenges to enhance the Health and Wellbeing of our members and our communities.

This area covers a broad spectrum and one of those is the Mental Health and Emotional Wellness of our people.

 Our members give a lot to our organisation in terms of effort and energy and I firmly believe we in the Gaelic Athletic Association have a sacred responsibility to these same people and the wider community to create the atmosphere and culture where people can feel the safety in facing up to their inner problems and create the support structures to help them on their path back to health.

That we can say to our people that it’s okay to not feel okay, affirm and encourage the message that it is an act of strength, courage and most of all, kindness to yourself to address your emotional difficulties and seek some assistance.

That our clubhouses, gyms, ball alleys, meeting rooms and GAA fields can become a sanctuary of support for these people the same way they did for me during my difficulties.

Over 800 people on this island of Ireland end their lives by suicide each year but in reality the figure well over a thousand. The graves of our dead from these deaths may appear to be silent but they are sending out a powerful message that is echoing loudly across our land of the internal turmoil many of our people are enduring.

 Over 60,000 are admitted to A&E departments each year with self harming injuries, the method that is used by many of our women in despair to give outer, physical expression to their inner pain, shattering the myth that our female population are more effective at dealing with or discussing their real emotional issues.

The startling reality is that Ireland has the highest rate of suicide amongst young females in Europe and the second highest amongst young men.

 But these are only the tip of the iceberg. What of our countless thousands that are living lives of quiet desperation and silent misery. The World Health Organisation says that by 2030, Depression will be the number one health problem in the world.

Let’s not just focus on the statistics and numbers for these never tell the human story behind them. These people are our brothers and sisters, our Mothers and Fathers, our sons and daughters, our friends and neighbours, our hurlers, footballers and camogie players, our coaches and Chairmen, our Secretaries and ladies committees, our men that line our fields and man the scoreboards.

It’s the 18 year old young man I spoke to during the week from Belfast who loves his Gaelic football but because of his attraction to other young men, is hurt each time a fellow teammate, supporter or coach, either unwittingly or purposely uses the word ‘gay’ in a derogatory and belittling manner and forces him further back in to his shell, denying him the opportunity to feel free to express and live this part of his life and so no longer gets enjoyment from participating and competing in our games.

 It’s the 67 year old woman in Laois who writes to me and describes the isolation and loneliness she feels since the death of her husband who was a lifelong member and officer in her local GAA club and now feels forgotten about in her local community.

It’s Galway hurler Niall Donoghue who thrilled thousands in this venue less than 18 months ago on All Ireland Hurling Final day with his hurling skills and bravery, yet now lies cold in a grave in Kilbeacanty after ending his life through suicide last year. I visited his grave on the outskirts of Kilbeacanty and it brought me back to how close I was to doing a similar thing myself. As his cousin Niall McDonagh and I knelt and said a quiet prayer, the heavens opened and hailstones hurtled from the skies and Niall’s final resting place reminded us both of the absolute finality, utter tragedy and immeasurable loss that suicide is. We visited his home place, I sat, spoke and ate with his beautiful but broken hearted father Francis who would gladly trade every medal and achievement his son ever attained to just have him walk in the door again each evening.

My travels around Ireland over the last few months, giving talks to schools, sports clubs, Mental Health organisations and meeting with individuals has exposed me to the carnage that depression, addiction, suicide and unhealthy levels of stress and anxiety is causing throughout our land to our people, our families and our communities.

The cacophony of screaming and distress, mostly silent or behind the masks we each wear daily, largely goes unheard and unseen.

Each day I receive e-mails, letters or phone calls from people that are struggling with their Mental Health and many are from people who are suffering in silence. They endure this daily and nightly misery on their own, carrying the burden of despair and fear because of the stigma and taboo that still surrounds this issue in our country.

Our health and Wellbeing committees can do much to break down these taboos and stigmas and help to end this killer silence.

    A man was walking along a deserted beach at sunset. As he walked he could see a young boy in the distance, as he drew nearer he noticed that the boy kept bending down, picking something up and throwing it into the water.
Time and again he kept hurling things into the ocean.

As the man approached even closer, he was able to see that the boy was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time he was throwing them back into the water.

The man asked the boy what he was doing, the boy replied,"I am throwing these washed up starfish back into the ocean, or else they will die through lack of oxygen. "But", said the man, "You can't possibly save them all, there are thousands on this beach, and this must be happening on hundreds of beaches along the coast. You can't possibly make a difference."

The boy looked down, frowning for a moment; then bent down to pick up another starfish, smiling as he threw it back into the sea. He replied,

"I made a huge difference to that one!"

So it is with us in the GAA. We can and have to make a difference for the person that is in reach of our hand. We can make a difference for the boy in Belfast by ensuring our venues and fields are places where all can feel welcome to play no matter the colour of their skin, the God they pray to or whom they choose to love.

We can make a difference for the 67 year old woman in Laois to ensure that she doesn’t have to feel she is isolated and alone and forgotten about.

We can’t make a difference for Niall Donoghue, his life has ended but we can and we have a responsibility to those many others experiencing inner turmoil.

The Persian poet Rumi says ‘Yesterday I was clever and I wanted to change the world, today I am wise and so I am changing myself.’  We have to be wise and innovative and creative and brave in transforming our culture within our organisation in how we view and value ourselves and those around us.

No matter how technologised our society becomes, the cravings of the human soul and spirit and heart will never change. The inward yearning of each human being to be valued and appreciated for their own unique and sacred presence, the desire to love and be loved, the need to belong to something outside of themselves has and will always be at the core of each individual we encounter.     

By being imaginative and courageous, our Health and Wellness committees can help to promote that environment where the above needs can be met so that first and foremost, it’s the presence of each individual in our association that is valued above all else, that it’s the richness and fullness of our people’s inner lives that is far more important than the richness of our Treasurer’s accounts or the fullness of our trophy cabinets.

 In that atmosphere of respect, our members can emerge from the protective shells that we all build around aspects of our true selves and so be able to live far more healthier and fulfilled lives and where those in distress can feel the necessary safety and support to be able to break their silence and begin their journey back to wellness.

I genuinely find the modern GAA player to be a phenomenal species. Driven, disciplined, committed, loyal, supportive, broad minded. They go out on a field and for 70 minutes play a warrior’s sport with ferocity, passion and fire. When the game is over, I don’t believe the current generation of players are leaving their warrior spirit on the field until the next game.

They are carrying the mantle of it with them in to their dressing rooms, training fields, homes, workplaces and communities.  They are evolving into warriors of the soul and spirit.

They are determined that the issues that are affecting them and their teammates are not allowed to be hidden, silenced and not spoken about like times of old. They are passionate about showing solidarity with their teammates and are willing to stand shoulder to shoulder with each other, whether it be with issues like addiction, unhealthy levels of stress and anxiety, sexuality or Mental Health.

We in our Health and Wellbeing committees need to tap into and build on that spirit.

My journeys and experiences of the last number of months have exposed me to stories of terrible tragedy, pain and darkness and I have shed a lot of tears in that time.

Everywhere I go though, I also see the seeds of hope for our present and our future. There is a growing momentum amongst our people to see and embrace change in how we are within ourselves and with each other. There are more of us realising that the dogmas and ways of old are no longer acceptable and more again are beginning to find their own voices and throw off the shackles of repression that have manacled generations of our people.

 There is a voracious hunger amongst our people for knowledge, guidance and support in these areas. Again, I see a major role for our Health and wellbeing committees in these areas.

I also get great hope and inspiration from the initiative shown by Dessie Farrell, Siobhan Earley and the other staff in the GPA. Their energy and enthusiasm for progress, their appetite for work, their awareness of the needs of their members and the support structures that they have built and continue to build to facilitate the progress and growth of their player’s inner and outer lives is an example to organisations the world over.  

The GAA has enriched my life in a myriad of magical and wonderful ways. I still get great satisfaction and enjoyment from competing and playing hurling as I currently near my twentieth year of adult hurling with my club in Cloyne. There was a time however where it looked like I mightn’t make it to a fifth year.

I know from my own experiences that without good Mental Health and Emotional Wellness, there is no health and no capacity to truly enjoy the experience and reap the intangible benefits of being a player or a member of our magnificent association.

 The development of better facilities, the advancements in our coaching standards, the growth and increased use of sport science have all helped to improve the lives of our players and administrators but they mean less and little to a member that is gripped in the tentacles of depression, whose life is filled with unhealthy levels of stress or anxiety or is afflicted with gambling, success, alcohol, sport, drug or work addictions.

It’s why I truly feel that the work that we have been tasked with in our Health and Wellbeing committees could be the most important work that any GAA committee has ever been assigned to undertake.

The challenges confronting the members we represent are vast and complex but our island’s wider society has always looked to the GAA to lead the way in rising with and embracing the difficulties of our times. In some areas we have succeeded and in others we have failed.

More than ever, our people need us to lead the way and be the beacon of light and bedrock of support to empower them to be able to deal effectively with the various Health and Wellness issues they are experiencing.

Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism once said:

‘This existence of ours is as transient as Autumn clouds
To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance,
A lifetime is like a flash of lightning in the sky,
Rushing by like a torrent down a steep mountain.

We have stopped for a moment on our cosmic journey to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share, to play hurling, football, camogie and to manage our games.

This is a precious moment, but it is temporary, as the lives of Donal Walsh in Kerry, Cormac McAnallen in Tyrone and many others have shown. If we can share this moment with caring, lightheartedness, authenticity and love, we will allow the opportunity for each of us to live with freedom in our minds and joy in our hearts and create a far better world and sporting organisation for us all to live, work and play in. And then, and then, this moment will have been worthwhile.

The National Health and Wellbeing Committee is genuinely looking forward to working with you all in a joint effort to ensure that this moment, this time and our era together will be a worthwhile experience for all of our members and communities in both our inner and outer worlds.

I wish you all well on our continued journey together.