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Suicide in Ireland in the 19th century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2016

D. Walsh
D. Walsh*
Affiliation:
Russborough, Blessington, County Wicklow, Ireland
*
*Address for correspondence: D. Walsh, Russborough, Blessington, County Wicklow, Ireland. (Email: blaisewalsh@eircom.net)
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Abstract

Introduction

This paper is an attempt to determine the extent and characteristics of suicide in 19th-century Ireland and the proportion of these that occurred in asylums.

Methods

The procedures used in this presentation involve analysis of data from the 1841 and 1851 Censuses of Ireland and the Reports of the Registrar-General of Ireland from 1864 to 1899 and the Annual Reports of the Inspectors of Lunacy, 1850 to 1899.

Results

Reported suicides had relatively low rates in the 19th century, ranging from 0.9 to 3.3 per 100 000 per year. The proportion of these suicides that occurred in asylums was low at ~4%.

Conclusions

The reporting of suicide as a cause of death was relatively rare in the first-half of the 19th century in Ireland, but increased in frequency progressively throughout the second-half of that century. The reported numbers are likely to have minimised the real rates because of under-reporting.

Keywords

Irelandsuicide19th century
Type
Original Research
Information
Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine , Volume 34 , Issue 3 , September 2017 , pp. 177 - 181
Copyright
© College of Psychiatrists of Ireland 2016 

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References

Brugha, T, Walsh, D (1978). Suicide past and present – the temporal constancy of under-reporting. British Journal of Psychiatry 132, 177–179.Google Scholar
Corcoran, E, Walsh, D (1999). Suicide in psychiatric inpatients in Ireland. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine 16, 127–131.Google Scholar
Dean, G, Mulvihill, CJ (1999). Non registration of deaths as a source of error in mortality data in the Irish Republic. Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine 16, 16–17.Google Scholar
Registrar-General (1880). Sixteenth Detailed Report of the Registrar-General of Marriages, Births and Deaths in Ireland in 1879. Alex Thom: Dublin.Google Scholar
Verriere, J (1979). La Population d’Irlande. Mouton: Paris.Google Scholar
Walsh, D (1976). A century of suicide in Ireland. Journal of the Irish Medical Association 69, 144–152.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Walsh supplementary material

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