canisgallicus

DIVORCE IN IRELAND – A NEW PHENOMENON OR NOT?

A turn of a circle!!!

by Michelle Clarke

In this essay I intend to examine the history of divorce in Ireland, what advantages are derived from the late arrival of Divorce legislation into the Irish Republic, to determine if there is anything which can be learned from the past which will initiate further changes in legislation and to review options available to spouses wanting to separate prior to the Act.

Our legal system is based on Common Law and Statute Law. Judges interpret the relevant statutes and refer to precedents set down in earlier cases. On 24th November 1995, the citizens of Ireland approved an amendment to the Constitution allowing the Oireachtas to pass the new Family Law (Divorce) Act 1996 (“Divorce Act”). The Divorce Act came into operation February 27th 1997. The interpretation of the statute, the lack of precedent cases to refer to, precedents of void/voidable marriages, the Recognition of Foreign Divorces Act 1986, Article 41 of the Constitution which recognises the Family “as the natural primary and fundamental unit group of Society”, the endeavours in America and the UK to re-establish this principle, the “no fault” aspect, are some of the many areas make the new Divorce Act an interesting area to examine.

What is interesting is that in the 8th/9th Century Ireland in Brehon law, divorce was an option. Men could divorce their wives for betrayal, where the wife brought disgrace to his honour, if she stole, for procuring an abortion or aborting herself, for failure as a housekeeper and if there was mutual consent. Women could likewise divorce their husbands; if the husband was sexually unsatisfactory, i.e. he was sterile, impotent, a homosexual or obese, if he became a vagrant or lost all his property, if he maltreated her, for slander, derision, neglect or deception, if he paid insufficient maintenance, for breach of marital privacy, for madness or an incurable illness or where the man opted to take a second wife.  Brehon law worked on the basis of penalties, a pregnancy as a result of rape meant the father had to rear the child and in a divorce situation, the dowry had to be repaid to her family by the husband and any chattels, possessions or money brought by her to the marriage had to be returned to her. She was also entitled to a distribution of the gains made during the marriage period.

In the 9th Century the Vikings invaded. Women had a prominent position in their culture which intermingled well with Gaelic culture. Viking women could inherit and hold property in their own name. They were free to divorce their husbands and retrieve goods brought to the marriage. This system indicates an equality between men and women and their contribution to the family unit. Having lived in Zimbabwe, it is interesting to note that in that Society, women work equally, if not harder than men. A maid in a house is senior, both financially and in status, to a gardener (often her husband). Children of a marriage are reared by grandparents, aunts or others who receive payment. In Zimbabwe “Lobola” is paid by the husband-to-be to the Bride’s family, interestingly this mirrors the following Brehon law:-

“The husband-to-be shall pay a bride-price of land, cattle, horses, gold or silver to the father of the bride.
Husband and Wife will retain individual rights to all the land, flocks and household goods each brings to the marriage”.

The Anglo Norman Conquest of Ireland took place in the 1169. Gaelic law and Viking Law were over-taken by English Common Law which incorporated the religious concept of marriage as an indissoluble union for life, as a sacrament of the Church, and the consensus of opinion that the preservation of the stability of marriage was a vital social need. Until the mid-1880’s, marriage was the exclusive concern of the Church of England. Disputes were dealt with by the Church’s own courts and Canon law pertained. The ordinary courts did not deal with matrimonial matters at all. Canon law regarded marriage as a sacrament and did not permit remarriage in the lifetime of the other spouse, however it did permit separation. They granted divorce mensa et toro (‘from table and hearth’) in cases of adultery, cruelty or desertion. They made orders for custody of the children and financial support for wives and children called ‘permanent alimony’. Sacramental marriage as previously stated was indissoluble and created no property rights between the spouses. Church teaching stated “The Twain Shall be of One Flesh”. It is this influence that removed the partnership concept of the early Gaelic/Viking law that if both parties agree, a marriage contract can be dissolved.

Social pressures brought about changes in the evolution of the concept of marriage (‘the sacrament of the Church altered and it became marriage, the partnership, the contract). The medley of Church and Contract law however has created unclear parameters. Divorce in today’s society is prevalent and if this is the case, then those who choose to marry should be free to marry without the predominant influences of Church interpretation. Marriage, as a partnership is a matter for the civil law; it is formed by agreement i.e. a contract. If it is a contract then it should be possible to dissolve it by agreement or by the court if it becomes unworkable or one party has broken a basic term of the agreement. The property rights should therefore depend on the terms of the agreement, some assets being owned separately, others jointly.

The Family Law Act 1995 and the Divorce Act has not yet enveloped this development which existed in the past. Present separation and divorce legislation may be contrasted with the traditional law of maintenance and succession which was based on marriage as a life-long contract. The spouse who failed to act in accordance with the contract lost his or her rights as detailed in the contract, and the other spouse was entitled to be placed, as far as possible, in the same position as if the contract had been observed. The result was that the deserting spouse lost maintenance and succession rights but the innocent spouse could claim that his/her standard of living be maintained as if the marriage had subsisted. The element of “no fault” in the Divorce Act prevents this approach unless the Judge decides to take account of the provision “that if the conduct of the spouse is such that in the opinion of the court it would be in all the circumstances of the case be unjust to disregard it”.

Presently pre-marriage contracts, providing for what is to happen in the event of divorce, are deemed frustrated, because any agreement on marriage which contemplates divorce is contrary to public policy and void. Pre-marriage contracts apply in America and terms can go so far as to include brides determining their value in the event of them not remaining in paid employment. Marriage for life i.e. pre the Divorce Act possibly merited a sharing of assets/finances gained pre-marriage but now that divorce is an option, it is my opinion, that a spouse should by contract be able to identify assets/property/money which are not to be divided at the Courts discretion in the event of a divorce. If a spouse receives money from their family, it surely is a presumption, to assume that it is given to the husband and wife.

In Ireland we have had the benefit of being able to review divorce legislation in other countries, to see the pitfalls and the social implications. We have had to amend our constitution which places a high value on the family as a unit, in such a way as to prevent a divorce if at all possible. The conditions to be complied with are stringent with a strong emphasis on supporting dependent members of the family unit. The interesting aspect of the Irish Divorce Act is that it is “No Fault”. If the following conditions are complied with, then either spouse can proceed with a divorce application:-

1. At the divorce application, the spouses must have lived apart from one another for a period of, or periods amounting to, at least 4 years during the 5 year period preceding the application.
2. There must be no reasonable prospect of reconciliation.
3. The court must be satisfied that proper provision exists or will be made for the spouses or any dependent members of the family.
4. At least one of the spouses must be either domiciled in the State on the date proceedings were started, or ordinarily resident in the state for at least one year prior to that date.

4 years separated during a 5 year period is intended to give adequate time for an opportunity to reconcile and still not jeopardise the divorce. The Divorce Act allows the court to make a variety of orders before deciding whether to grant a divorce. This is important as the spouse, who has financial and other commitments to their family unit, will have to prove to the court that during the 4 year period prior to the application for divorce that they have complied with the condition to provide support. 41.3.2 of the Constitution stated that no law can be enacted in Ireland to allow a marriage to be dissolved. This meant that the people of Ireland, unlike their other European neighbours, could not divorce and remarry.

Alternatives were and are still available, namely for the Courts to grant a judicial separation or to declare a marriage to have been invalid from the start i.e. State annulment or nullity. These alternatives provided a partial solution to the problem but the 1995 referendum, although only by a marginal vote, saw Article 41.3.2 replaced. It was put forward that 41.3.2 be simply removed and no other provisions be added but the importance of the protection of the family unit and the inability to make divorce an easy option resulted in the insertion of 4 provisions stated above.

The impact of the Divorce legislation is questionable. Now we have Divorce but is the cost and work involved to obtain it worth it, either financially or emotionally? Divorce permits remarriage but the assumption is that those presently separated want the freedom to remarry their new partners. By virtue of the fact that no legal entitlement to divorce existed pre 1997 does not mean that marriages did not break-down? They did and people sought their own remedies and Family Law legislation particularly since 1986 aimed at protecting those affected by marital breakdown. For those determined to separate, options existed. The Domicile and Recognition of Foreign Divorces Act 1986 ensured where one spouse changed their domicile and obtained a divorce in that jurisdiction that their divorce was recognised and that they were free to remarry.

The mobility of labour throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s made this a possible option. The DRFDA 1986 changed the law in that a woman is no longer deemed to be the same domicile as her husband. I suspect the Revenue and Courts have shown leniency in their definition of “domicile” prior to the Divorce Act but now the domicile rule will be more strictly interpreted, otherwise, rather than use the Irish system for divorce, the alternative, quicker and cheaper, route in the UK, would be more effective. Civil or State annulments were also an option. A State annulment is a High Court Declaration that the marriage was null and void and therefore never existed. This is a costly and protracted procedure which costs over £10,000. The High Court can grant a Decree of Nullity for a number of reasons, including:-  incapacity to marry, e.g. if either party was married to someone else at the time of the marriage or was under age not observing the formalities e.g. no witnesses non-consummation of the marriage absence of free consent, e.g. if it can be proved that, at the time of the marriage, either person was incapable of understanding the implications of a marriage contract due to insanity, or that either person was intoxicated, under duress, impotent, or unable to sustain a normal marital relationship (e.g. due to a serious psychological, emotional or psychiatric disability which was not known to the other person at the time of the marriage).

Again, this is an area where the Courts may have extended boundaries particularly re. duress or where the person was deemed unable to sustain a normal marital relationship. A Decree of Nullity, given the absence of Pre-Marital contracts, in my opinion, will continue, where possible, to be an alternative to Divorce. If one party is more financially endowed than the other and there is a possibility of having the marriage declared void i.e. deemed to have never existed, this will be the recommended route, as they will not be obliged to pay maintenance to the dependent spouse and the obligations that must be complied with as per the Constitution amendment will not apply.

It is interesting to note that despite the Divorce ban, the legislation passed in Ireland over the past 10 years is protective over the family unit. The Status of Children Act 1987 removed discrimination in law between children within and outside marriage. The Jurisdiction of Courts and Enforcement of Judgements (European Communities) Act 1988 ensures the recognition and enforcement of civil orders including maintenance in the European Union. The Adoption Act 1988 permits children of married parents to be adopted in exceptional cases. The Family Law Act 1988 abolished action for restitution of conjugal rights. The Judicial Separation and Family Law Reform Act 1989 extended the grounds for obtaining judicial separation, provided the courts with power to distribute property on separation and to order maintenance for dependent spouses and children. This Act also recognises a person’s work within the home, or in looking after children, as a contribution to be taken into account in making such orders. The Children Act 1989 makes provision for placing children in care in certain cases. The Jurisdiction of Courts and Enforcement of Judgements Act 1993 provides for the enforcement of civil orders including maintenance orders in other European jurisdictions. The Maintenance Act 1994 provides for the enforcement of maintenance orders. The Social Welfare (No. 2) Act 1995 ensures that divorcees will not be disadvantaged in terms of their social welfare entitlements. The Family Law Act 1995 strengthens the powers of the Courts in relation to maintenance and pensions, raises the age of marriage to 18 years, introduces three-month notice period for marriages, and provides role for welfare service in family cases. Women’s Aid, the National Council of Women, AIM and others have played a significant role in the protection of women and children and have been instrumental in the legislative changes mentioned above.

The foregoing legislative changes all consolidate the family orientated approach to be found in Ireland and indicate a policy of protectionism to children and dependent spouses. Women more often tend to be the dependent spouse. The emphasis on “economic” contribution, the non economic value of women’s work within the home and as carers, the tendency for men to earn higher incomes greatly diminishes a woman’s access to economic value hence it is necessary for the courts to be fair in administering divorce/separation/maintenance legislation. Hopefully now that divorce is an option, newly married couples will set a new agenda. Women who choose to marry will be cognizant that it may no be a life-time commitment and will more than likely remain in the workforce, limit their family size, send their children to crèche facilities and the emphasis should alter from dependency to economic equality. However, before this evolution can take place, the situation at present, according to Alan Shatter, author of Family Law in Ireland, is that there are 90,000 separated people in Ireland and there are no doubt many others playing the wait and see option prior to their decision of going through the legal process for separation/divorce.

Divorce in the UK is easy to obtain but often there is a Decree nisi and inadequate financial provision made for the first family. The lack of family emphasis and ease and speed with which a divorce can be obtained has created its own social problems. In my opinion, the undertaking to marry, have children and create a solid unit is important. To make it easy for either spouse to renege on the commitments of this undertaking is not beneficial to society. In America and the UK, they are now re-appraising the ease with which a divorce can be obtained and luckily in Ireland we have had the advantage of looking at the impact of divorce in other countries and the social problems created. The procedure as directed by the Divorce Act for respective solicitors to advise and give details of counsellors, to recommend mediation, the 4 year rule, the requirement to provide adequate maintenance to dependents all focus on the perspective of giving both spouses every option to re-consider their decision to separate.

Divorce in Ireland – a new phenomenon or not? Not really. Divorce is a legal term relating to common law and statute and the aim is to put an end to a formal contract of marriage. A married couple may choose to live apart and in the absence of Divorce legislation in the past, solutions were found; wives/husbands were deserted, separation agreements existed, marriages were declared void, foreign divorces were obtained. The Family Law Act 1995 gives power to the Circuit Court to make orders on financial provisions for spouses in the event of judicial separation and /or foreign divorce. The Act is comprehensive permitting the court to make a number of orders in relation to maintenance, periodical/lump sum payments, property adjustment orders, financial compensation orders and pension adjustment orders. In the case of a dependent spouse, retirement benefit orders and contingent benefit orders can be made. This in effect means that a choice can be made by couples to select the Judicial Separation route enabling to avail of the foregoing provisions. Then at a later stage, they have a “second bite at the cherry” when an application is made for the divorce. In this case, the divorce application may be appropriate for the spouse whose circumstances have deteriorated since separation while the circumstances of the other spouse have improved or for the dependent spouse and family, who at the time of the separation were not made aware of the true economic position and as a result do not receive a fair settlement.

Creases still exist. Changes in legislation must occur. The forthcoming divorce cases or lack of them will indicate the options people choose once they decide to terminate their marriage.

Essay by Michelle Clarke
Submitted to Ailbhe Smyth: Centre for Women Studies UCD 1997

BIBLIOGRAPHY:-

Amorys Aufochs, Divorce. A practical guide to Divorce in Ireland. Dublin 1997.
Burgoyne, Ormrod, Richards. Divorce Matters. Chaucer Press, Suffolk, Great Britain 1987
Dowling Daly, Mary, Irish Laws 1989
KPMG, Pension Matters Brochure, 1996
Long, Ian, Divorce Separation and the Family, 1997
Lysaght, Charles, Women’s Political Association 1997.
O’Reilly, Carol-Anne, Consumer Choice. November 1995
Wood, Kieron, O’Shea, Paul, Divorce in Ireland. 1997.

Source: Royal City of Dublin Hospital for sale, War Memorial World War 1, history British Empire to Irish Republic, established 1832

PUBLISHED JANUARY 05 2005, OPEN PUBLISHING SITE

Christmas 2015:  My mother gave me a Christmas Card ‘A Winter’s Sunset on the Hill of Tara, Co. Meath.  The original drawing was done by Micheal O’Brien, artist, and known to us both for many decades.  He recently passed away.   This prompted me to look for any articles I may have written about the Hill of Tara where I lived from the age of 5 to 18 years. 

Monday, Jan 10 2005, 8:12pm

Yes, the Archaeological findings stand but also what about the social history

by Michelle Clarke – Social Justice and Ethics

I have lived in and visited English villages. You know, those that are the turnoff from the motorway. Those that invoke the feeling of history and present combined.

The English value their culture; their history but we are yet ill at ease with accepting it and throw it aside in favour of development. The development takes little account of the history despite the the ardent work of the local historical societies; the GAA; and others.

There is a house on the road to Tara. It is a large Victorian style house most likely built in the late 1800’s. I have the pleasure of having lived in that house of intrigue from the age of 5 to 18 years old. It was about intrigue and wonder for a child and all that is different.

Tara, then was a place of mystery. We knew that it represented something historic but it was difficult to grasp exactly what. I hasten to add we played on the historic mounds with negligence and without any awareness of their historic value and cycled around them too.  I recall the talk of the ruined Tara Hall – and the Thomas Moore connections. I also recall the regrets that people let the property go into decay but the time when that occurred, Ireland was a young Independent Nation with other priorities to the houses of the out of favour Irish Gentry.

Royal Tara Golf Club existed then and many years before but it was different, economic growth ensured its new dimension within the scope of the history of Tara.

The Hill – in the 1960’s; there was little traffic except surprisingly the CIE bus with American tourists who traveled there daily. It is fair to say we needed the Tourism of Tara then because Meath had little to offer as distinct to say Clare and Galway and counties too including the City of Dublin.

As children, my brother Shane, 5 years younger and our two friends, Richard and Francis, discovered all five roads that led to Tara. There was always the little bit more we could travel to make us feel that little more grown up. In our childlike minds, we would go down the back road from Tara on our bikes, to the Golf Club. We would surmise, make up our own views. On a reckless day, we would head for Kilmessan, a most intriguing village and then back by Dunsany. The best stop for sweets was early on at a quaint shop at Tara Hill then selling Celtic Irish memorabilia. For country bumpkins like us this was about more intrigue, speculation and exploratory mindsets.

We would look over the bridges and see those train tracks and wonder why did they obliterate the rail system with such haste. We would think of then Kilmessan as a vibrant village where people could go to work or visit Dublin daily……and then there were the people who worked on the trains and more speculation there when we heard their recollections.

There was the Parish Priests’s House; the Teachers house and the Doctors (in those days seen as a triad of power in the ordinary people’s lives). They covered a designated geographic rural area.

There was Dunsany Castle; a real live castle with Lord and Lady Dunsany living in the castle.  There was Lord Fingal and his wife in Killeen Castle. Many people lived in estate houses and here was another bedrock of power from pre-1916 days. I suppose for those who go to Enniskerry, in Co. Wicklow, the example exists of the potential for the Skryne/Tara circle (let it be a circle mixing history and hope) has the potential of evoking the same concept.

There must be a way……..

This social history as would be referred to in England is only 40 years ago.

Tara invoked attention from international and national links circa 1915. People like Maud Gonne and others looked to the possibility that the Ark of the Covenant existed in Tara.

Have people forgotten about the Dispensary Health system in Ireland? This emerged under British Rule but went off on its own specific direction after Independence. The Health service was subject to a strong Church/Medical profession influence that resulted in the two tier primary health care that now exists unlike England with a National Health Service, free to all.

Belper, its land, orchards and woods, was the Dispensary House. My Father and Mother, both doctors arrived there in 1963. Dr. Murnane and his wife Alice and family lived their as the dispensary doctors, for several decades prior. I think the doctor prior to the Murnanes was Dr. Lynch.

This is a social history in its own right. The practice covered out to Ratoath; to Kilmessan; to beyond Dunshaughlin; to Ashbourne to near Navan. The dispensary doctor received a half day per week off, thereafter service was almost 24 hours.  In the days of the Murnanes – the house employed a staff and I recall one patient telling me how he had his tooth pulled by Dr. Murnane.

There were lots of stories then; there were lots of observations; the imagination could be cultivated – the sheds where the horses were kept from days earlier provided so many questions for children – the ring that the horse was tied to; the room next to the horse stable with yet another room off it – yes this provided the shelter for people there. It had a fire place but I am slow to recall if there was space for a bed.  Originally, Belper (prior to our time) had a lawn tennis court and there was always that desire for us as children to resurrect the court but then that involved ‘work and ashes’ for a lawn tennis court. There was the orchard that had become overgrown and likewise the rockery; the remnants of ‘berry’ bushes that would sometimes yield some gooseberries or redberries. The Apple trees provided unpredictable supplies of cooking apples and only a few eating apples. There was a changing society from people working in these large labour intensive homes/houses with no heat other than fire places in every room. Yes those days of maids; servants, workmen and other people like scullery maids.

Let us not lose too much history. Think of Skryne and Tara as a circle with a social history that sums up a lot in Pre and Post independent Ireland. Let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater.
I am sure so much can be added……

Michelle Clarke

Background:

Heritage campaigners have delivered 2,000 submissions to the Oireachtas Transport Committee opposing plans to build a motorway through the historic landscape surrounding the Hill of Tara in Co Meath.

The submissions were collected by the Save Tara-Skryne Valley group at various locations throughout Ireland over the weekend.

The group is campaigning for a re-routing of the M3 motorway away from the Tara-Skryne Valley, which is rich with archaeology dating back to the Stone Age.

Vincent Salafia, a spokesman for the Save Tara-Skryne Valley group, said the argument against the current route of the motorway was based on economics as well as archaeological protection.

He said lengthy court battles and painstaking excavations mean the M3, in its current form, could not be completed before 2015.

“It would actually be cheaper and delivered quicker if they re-route the motorway now,” he added.
add your comments

 

To return to the Christmas card:

Some of the reasons why people come to Tara!

1. Saint Patrick and his association with the Hill
2. St. Patrick’s Church of Ireland – now an interpretative centre with a church service once a year on St. Patrick’s Day.
3. Archaeological Interest
4. The History – Tara’s Monuments
5. The Legends of Kingship – 142 Kings
6. The Holy Wells
7. Sacred Place – Druids Perform ceremonies
8. To connect with the ‘energy’
9. To visit the Sheela-na-gig – the fertility stone in the churchyard
10. The view, weather permitting, 13 counties and limitless landmarks
11. The battle of the Hill of Tara 1798 – remembering the event
12. Daniel O’Connell’s Monster Meeting 1843
13. The five great roads of Ireland had their junction at Tara
14. The Fairy Tree and its colourful votive decorations
15. The story ‘Gone with the Wind’ last lines reads ‘Tara! Home.  I’ll go home….’ (American interest mostly)

(Text by Sinead Maguire, Tara, Co Meath, 2015.

Source: Good Friday Agreement 1998: “Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it”. Edmund Burke Scholar

For me, today, this Christmas day 2015, it is nostalgia and a journey through my computer files and my decision to extract articles written in years gone by and considering them in the context of now; Ireland facing a General Election in early 2016, a year which is the Centenary of the Easter Rising which led to Ireland, the Republic, the Independent State, a member of the European Community as early as 1973.  Never forget, we Ireland, are a very young State yet a very old country and Independence came at a very high price.

Strange times.  Mercurial.  Peter Robinson, DUP (First Minister) in coalition with Sinn Fein, Martin McGuinness, Deputy First Minister, hands over the mantle to Arlene Foster, a Lawyer, a daughter of an RUC man a woman who has had direct impact from IRA attacks during the Troubles.

Newspapers of recent date are inundated with articles about a case taken by the Criminal Assets Bureau for failure to make tax returns over a number of years. Thomas “Slab” Murphy is in the dock; it can be said without doubt that this man ranked highly in the IRA – all of this about the IRA and Tom Murphy still remain allegations because To Murphy was never convicted of membership of any organisation.  This has resulted in the decision in Ireland to try him in Green Street in other words a “Diplock Court”, there is no jury and the panel consisted of 3 Judges.  The New Year will reveal the sentence this man will get; it could be prison.  Is it not fair to ask – and I take no sides herein.  Was the Court not more suitable for Sean FitzPatrick, Bradshaw, and so many more and soon to come home Mr Drumm, all former staff of Anglo Irish Bank.  I mean Tom Murphy, I know it is relevant is millions a mere few (alleged); but these Anglo Irish elites cost the State e68 Billion and a banking Inquiry that has just collapsed before the Old Year ran out.

It is like yesterday:  the article I include here is written in 2006, the time of the Revd Ian Paisley now deceased.

Article published on Open Publishing site:  (789 words)
January 2006.  The Good Friday Agreement https://www.dfa.ie/our-role…/the-good-friday-agreement-and-today/

To: Dr. Ian Paisley, to the  Progressive Democrats (PD’s)and their harsh sentiments to Decommissioning and to those who heckled Mr. Caoimhghin O’Caolain, Sinn Fein, https://sinnfein.ie/caoimhgh-n-caolain-td in the Dail yesterday.

It was my humble belief that it was time for reflection with the hope of PEACE.

I lived in Zimbabwe in the 1990’s and worked in the City, London, in the 1980’s early 1990’s. I was involved in a horse riding accident and suffered traumatic brain injury. This hampered my life but I can read and relate to pre-accident. Today, I completed a book I found in a second hand shop. The title attracted me – The Real Irish Peace Process – A Socialist Democracy Publication published in 1998. https://abebooks.com/book-search/title/the-real-irish-peace-process/.  I would recommend this factual account of ‘The Troubles’ and how people moved above war and focused on the Peace Process. The main elements of the book emanate from discussion papers and articles written in 1997, they also revert backwards to the John Hume  (Nobel Peace Prize recipient) and Gerry Adams discussions.

Now let’s go back to Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia. 1982 saw the end of Guerrilla war in Rhodesia, the former British colony, and the Lancaster Agreement was enacted – the new State was formed. It would be fair to say it was partially modeled on the Republic’s cessation as a colonial power. Like Ireland, the Zimbawean people had to endure a civil war. The golden rule ‘Divide and Conquer’ applied yet again and pithed the Shona tribe (President Mugabe) against the Matebele tribe (Joshua Ngoma). One need only listen to the news and realize the heightened sense of conflict in this country. Lord Acton’s words about ‘Absolute power corrupts and power corrupts absolutely’ could be said to be apt and famine and drought blights the poor. The people of this troubled country need support.

Ireland on the other hand has consistently through generations sought a Nation State. Now with the committed efforts of all parties involved in the Peace Process – there is hope.

This Peace Process has been endorsed by people like President Clinton, Senator Edward Kennedy, George Mitchell (American lawyer, primary architect of the Good Friday Agreement), Mo Mowlam, Secretary for State for Northern Ireland and many others in the US. Prime Minister Blair has been committed in his endeavours as has our Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern. People like Mr. Trimble, Mr. Hume, Mr. McGuinness, Mr. Gerry Adams, Mr. Gerry Kelly and so many more have been relentless in their endeavours to work with the IRA and to achieve all that is but one step a way from the Hope of an Island of Ireland.

I did not include Dr. Paisley for one reason. As a person I do not know him but his behaviour and apparent narcissism, is not acceptable. I feel it is time for him to leave aside similar remarks that I recall coming from a certain nun I lived in fear of at school. The remarks aimed at creating fea the combatant of love.

Doris Lessing now in her late eighties moved from Persia (now Iran) to Rhodesia and was one of the Revolutionaries expelled from Rhodesia by the Ian Smyth (British Colony) government.  Given my experiences in Zimbabwe I bought her book ‘African Laughter’. President Mugabe invited her to return to Zimbabwe in the 1990’s and the book was the outcome of the visit.

Subtlety appeals. I recall that every office, hotel, public space, had a photo in a prime location of President Mugabe (perhaps just in case one would forget!!!). Doris Lessing however found a ‘Poem’ in most offices.

Appropriately, the title is: the message is clear.

‘THE BOSS’

The Boss drives his men
The Leader inspires them
The Boss depends on authority
The leader depends on goodwill
The Boss evokes fear
The Leader radiates love
The Boss says ‘I’
The Leader says ‘WE’
The Boss shows who is wrong
The leader show what is wrong
The Boss knows hot it is done
The Leader knows how to do it
The Boss demands respect
The Leader commands respect

SO BE A LEADER, NOT A BOSS

I would hope that during this time of reflection that we can look to the leaders and ignore the narcissists. Narcissists are the people concerned with how they appear as distinct from what they FEEL. They deny feelings. Acting without feeling, they tend to be seductive and manipulative, striving for power and control. They are egotists focused on their own interest but lacking the true values of the self – namely self expression, self-possession, dignity and integrity; on the cultural level, narcissism is seen as the loss of human values’

I am sure we all can identify Boss/Narcissist people but these too are part of what David Hume refers to as ‘Diversity in Unity’

Michelle says bye and one more comment: Stockbrokers Bond: My Word is my Bond – surely the suggestion of “photos” diminishes the principle.

Christmas night 2015:

How many other inner agreements were signed and sealed to leave certain people alone who were also the architects of decommissioning.  I wonder how many people in large rooms off long corridors tonight are thinking 2016 may be for celebration but as Gerry Adams said – the Judiciary can get it so wrong.  Why a Diplock Court for mere tax returns?  O we know, the DPP requested the Certificate from the Supreme Court to produce Mr Murphy to a Diplock hearing.  Again, the men who cost the State billions and it is generations forward who will continue to pay this debt.  Yes, so many questions and many worried souls tonight.

To conclude:

We have a Taoiseach now in five years.  He only gives interviews on his terms and the questions are censored by his advisers.  He would never appear before Vincent Browne, yet Micheal Martin has and even Jack O’Connor of Siptu has.

Kenny as one Fianna Failer put it – yes the Grandson of Eamon De Valera said, Eamon O’Cuiv, ‘Kenny is the most bunkered Taoiseach in the history of the State’

Boss or Leader?

I recommend an interview of a young Gerry Adams by renowned psychiatrist Dr Anthony Clare in the 1980’s. https://www.youtube.com/show/anthonyclareinterviews

I also recommend interview of George Mitchell by Charlie Rose https://charlierose.com/watch/60573046

Mo Mowlam unfortunately left life a little too early.  https://www.dfa.ie/our-role…/the-good-friday-agreement-and-today/

Source: HOMELESSNESS IN DUBLIN IRELAND: ANNIVERSARY OF DEATH OF YOUNG MAN ADJACENT TO GOVT BUILDINGS

Source: SUICIDE: LIFE SENTENCE TO THOSE LEFT BEHIND

Source: SUICIDE: LIFE SENTENCE TO THOSE LEFT BEHIND

December 2019:  A global pandemic was about to bring the world to its knees.  Exercise Cygnus in 2016 supposedly dealt with a plan for the UK in the case of an unexpected Pandemic.  The US had removed funds from the Medical Industrial Complex (especially related to Public Health) and concentrated on the Military Industrial Complex leaving it exposed to the worst of outcomes when coronavirus COVID-19, in a similar but much faster way, became the pandemic of this 21st century.  The narratives of the Spanish flu which killed over 50 million people, more than the number of people who died in the WW1, never received the attention.  The Bubonic Plague was in the 1300’s and I wonder if many people know the story behind that song Ring a Ring a Rosie, it is as if the fear associated with a virus renders impotent a person’s ability to discuss it after it is removed from society. 

I highly recommend the film Contagion (Matt Damon) which was scripted in part by a man  who led to the end of that terrible killer disease called Smallpox – his name is Larry Brilliant.  I highly recommend his youtube talks.  Sir Angus Deaton and his wife Anne Case have recently written a book “Deaths of Despair………” hence I am including this with the historic writings of mine concerning suicide. 

These are dangerous times because we have the coronavirus COVID-19 but let nobody ever forget that depression lurks and the line is fine.  Too many people will have suicide ideation and will be pretending that they are just fine but it is not true.  This is a major Public Health Disaster which in turn has caused major social disarray and punitive legislation restricting peoples’ basic human rights of freedom.  The end game is about the economic depression which already is being predicted to be worse than the Great Depression 1930. 

My advice to people is to be aware; I  found redress in collecting quotes over the years and reading books (bibliotherapy is recognised as a way of helping people with depression).  Your mental health is like a thread, it is so very fine, be aware of how volatile the world is at present and take care of yourself and others.  Tackle what causes the FEAR with knowledge.  The history of Suicide and how at different times, it was either accept or criminalised is something people need to be aware of.   It may save your life.  The link below is a current assessment of the impact  on mental health; it is very well written and worth deep consideration especially as we move out of lockdown.  Some Public Health people suggest we CRUSH the virus by remaining in lockdown for another 6-8 weeks but the world is anxious to get back to their old normal which will never exist again.  In the world of information with time in abundance, use the opportunity and learn about life and engage now with lifelong learning.

Eurasia Review:  “Lockdowns are creating a mental health disaster”

https://www.eurasiareview.com/19052020-state-lockdowns-are-creating-a-mental-health-disaster-oped/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+eurasiareview%2FVsnE+%28Eurasia+Review%29

To those with addictions, I highly recommend Dr Gabor Mate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRMWgZx42xg

2017 diagnosed with breast cancer.  Constantly I referred to the fact that it was a far easier journey than the depression to my very core I fear.  I decided to write a book;  Fortune Favours the Brave, by Michelle Marcella Clarke https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912639610/

Michelle:  Going back through time; it may help others who are in despair

==========================

December 2015: Daily we hear of suicides, suicide murders, matricide, fratricide.  We have too many charities but yet too many die.  Is it time for a re-think?  I have no answers but I do think it is appropriate timing to become aware of the history of suicide.

Vincent:  Starry Starry Night.  His paintings….

TedMed talks.  The end of March 2016 approaches.  The news is about people in distress with mortgages, loans for farms and suicide.  There are no answers but it is essential to be aware and to know that Physicians/Doctors also feel stress, develop mental health problems, drink too much, become addicted to drugs often opioids.  This talk is by a doctor, the daughter of a psychiatrist mother and a father who is a doctor.  Also please listen to her talk and be aware that we all human.  Below I return to notes I compiled many years ago when I looked deep into my soul for answers.  I am still here.

“Why Doctors Kill Themselves”

http://tedmed.com/talks/show?id=528918#.Vvu4AUxRe0U.twitter

================================

THE SAVAGE GOD – A STUDY OF SUICIDE BY A. ALVAREZ (1971) https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/01/home/plath-alvarez.html

I read this book which was bought by my father, a doctor, in the 1970’s, and which I eventually read at the time of compiling these notes in 2002-2004.

William Shakespeare

‘Then is it sin to rush into the secret house of death, Ere death dare come to us’?

The history of suicide in Christian Europe is the history of official outrage and unofficial despair.

Blackstone, wrote that the burial was ‘in the highway, with a stake driven through the body’. The correlation was that of the person who chooses to commit suicide compared with the vampire. The last record of this is 1823 at the intersection of Grosvenor Place and Kings Road, London SW3. Thereafter “self-murderers” bodies were used in the schools of anatomy. Similar degradation(s) applied throughout Europe.

In 1670 le roi soleil incorporated into the legal code that all brutal practices concerning the degradation of the corpse of suicide continue, adding that the name was to be defamed perpetually, the nobles lost their nobility and were declared commoners. (Their woods were cut down, their castles were demolished).

In England suicide was declared a felony and in both countries (ie France) the property of the person who committed suicide reverted to the Crown. The laws that concerned confiscation of property remained in place in England until 1870 and an unsuccessful suicide person could still be sent to prison until 1961. (In 1969 – an Isle of Man court ordered that a teenager be birched for attempted suicide).

Professor Joad’s aphorism:
‘that in England you must not commit suicide, on pain of being regarded as a criminal if you fail and a lunatic of you succeed’.

Freud’s – early theory
Freud saw suicide as transposed murder, an act of hostility turned away from the object back on to the self, seems to be borne out by Christian superstition and law.  Suicide equated with murder proves to be a problem of interpretation for the Church. Neither the Old nor New Testament directly prohibits it.

The idea of suicide comes late in Christian doctrine and as an afterthought. It was not until the sixth century AD that the Church finally legislated against it and then the only biblical interpretation was the sixth commandment ‘thou shalt not kill’. The Bishops urged St. Augustine into action. It was later remarked by Rousseau that St. Augustine took his arguments from Plato’s Phaedo and not the Bible. St. Augustine was prompted by the suicide mania engaged in by the early Christians.

In a way the criminalisation of suicide emphasised the distance traveled between paganism (Rome – where the ritual of suicide/self murder was even honoured) to Christianity and Monotheism.

The Alternative Dimension:

There is a Druid maxim promoting suicide as a religious principle; the same applies to certain warring tribes; if you kill yourself to accompany a friend to the next world, you will travel there with them. This would compare to the Hindi, Suttee – where the wife burned herself to death at the funeral of her husband. Eskimos believed that violent death was a passport to paradise.

Altruistic Suicide:
Captain Oakes, who walked out to death in the Antartic snow in order to help Scott and his doomed companions; this would be considered altruism.

(I wrote to BBC re. Dr.  David Kelly (Iraq war and Weapons of Mass Destruction. My belief is that a man with his knowledge and education had no alternative but to commit suicide, on humanitarian grounds. His suicide forced the Hutton Inquiry and its aftermath. It is about making people aware of reality).

Distinction from:

Serious suicide: The act of choice. The man chooses to die because he deems his life not worth living – Despair. These suicides are usually deemed to be an index of high civilization. (‘Tell me the suicide rate and I will tell you your cultural sophistication’ – for the simple reason that the act goes against the most basic instincts, that of self-preservation). This is not necessarily the case when you consider the Tasmanian Aborigines. They were hunted like ‘kangaroos for afternoon’s sport’; and because a world in which this could happen was intolerable to them; they committed suicide as a race by refusing to breed.

Similarly, hundreds of thousands of Jews put themselves to death at Masada, rather than submit to the Roman legions. In the South Americas, so many committed suicide during the reign of the Spaniards, that labour shortages were so large that the Spaniards had to address the problems of suicide.

Aristotle – austere view:
He deemed suicide to be an ‘offence against the State’.

On religious grounds it polluted the city and economically weakened it by destroying a useful citizen. It was deemed an act of social irresponsibility.

The Epicureans and Stoics:
Both claimed to be indifferent to death as to life.

St. Augustine – took over Plato’s and the Pytagoreans’ argument that life is a gift from God and our sufferings, being divinely ordained, are not to be foreshortened by our actions, to hear them patiently is a measure of one’s greatness of soul.

By the time of St. Thomas Aquinas, suicide was deemed a mortal sin – a sin against God, Justice and Charity. Aristotle correlates charity to the basic instinct of self survival common with the animals and that it is a sin to go against nature. St. Augustine had attacked suicide as a preventative venture: the cult of martyrdom had got our of hand and was, anyway, no longer relevant to the Church in the 4th Century.

* Glanville Williams quotes a learned source to show that dogs sometimes commit suicide, ‘usually by drowning or by refusing food for a number of reasons – generally when the animal is cast out of the household, but also from regret and remorse or even sheer ennui. This is suggested as indication of a manifestation of intelligence in dogs.

---

---

---

Daniel Stern – Psychiatrist

Suicide is, in short, the one continuous, every day, ever present problem of living.  It is a question of degree.  I’d seen them in all varying stages of development and despair.  The failed lawyer, the cynical doctor, the depressed housewife, the angry teenager…all of mankind engage in the massive conspiracy against their own lives that is their daily activity. The meaning of suicide, the true meaning, has yet to be defined, has yet to be created in the broad dimensions it deserved.

Emile Durkheim – 1897:
A classic, Suicide, a Study in Sociology.
The change shifted from morality of the act to the social conditions which produced such despair. A “Why” was stated to Shakespeare’s famous words ‘To be or not to be….’

Professor Erwin Stengel believes attempted suicide is a cry for help.
NB the important functions of the Samaritans as distinct from the professions as an immediate port of call. The Samaritans were first established in 1953.

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Birds build – but not I build; no, but strain
Time’s eunuch, and not breed one work that wakes
Mine, O thou Lord of Life, Send my Roots Rain.
Gerard Manley Hopkins (Think)

Montesquieu – The Spirit of the Laws:
We do not find the Romans ever killed themselves without a cause;
but the English destroy themselves with unaccountability;
they destroy themselves often in the very bosom of happiness.
The action among the Romans was the effect of education;
it as connected with their principles and customs;
among the English it is the effect of a distemper.
It may be complicated with the scurvy.

---

Theories

Durkheim undertook to classify suicide scientifically. A distinct social position created each type – Egoistic, Altruistic, Anomic (“noun, Sociology.  A state or condition of individuals or society characterized by a breakdown or absence of social norms and values, as in the case of uprooted people”.)

Egoistic: relates to those who are not fully integrated into society and who rely heavily on their own resources. Thus the Protestant creed is more in line with this than Catholicism which insists on greater subservience and the omnipresence of God. Also included in this is the break-down of the family structure which protected each member from impulses of self-destruction.

Altruistic (opposite): These people are so absorbed in the community/group that their goals and identity become those of the person within the context of the group. The tribe or massive religion or group has such ‘massive cohesion’ that the “follow mentality” applies even to their detriment and demise.

Camus
‘What is called a reason for living is also an excellent reason for dying”

Anomic Suicide: This results from a change in the person’s social conditions.

For Durkheim the thrust was to insist that suicide was not an irredeemable moral crime but a fact of society, like the birth-rate or the rate of productivity; it had social causes which were subject to discerning laws and could be discussed and analysed rationally. The pessimistic view being that it was a social disease.

Pioneer Study of Suicide in London (1955) –

Peter Sainsbury: demonstrated convincingly that social isolation is a more powerful stimulus to self destruction than what he called indigenous poverty. He showed that in the deprived but relative close-knit working class areas of London’s East End the suicide rate was startlingly lower than in wealthier Bloomsbury, with its warrens of wealthier bedsitters.

Sainsbury believed that the secret lay in breaking the ‘cycle of loneliness’.

Rejection sums it up.

As water seeks its own level, despair equally seeks out its own environment

‘Suicide figures are higher in the wealthy industrialised countries than in the underdeveloped countries; they are higher among the comfortable professional middle classes than to the poor; the number of people who committed suicide was extraordinarily low in the Nazi concentration camps. Indeed deprivation can be a stimulation to seek survival.  (I recommend Viktor E Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning’).

Witness the classic case of George Orwell, who, after he left the Burma Police, deliberately turned his back on help and opportunities and, by choosing to be ‘down and out in Paris and London’ and who became a contributor to literature with a most profound vision.

Concentration Camps:

‘Realistic anxiety in these cases took the place of neurotic anxiety. The improvement of patients with depressive symptoms might be explained by the fact that their need for punishment had been gratified through the frightful circumstances, just as a depressive state may often improve when an organic disease develops’….(Pg. 122)

Note from Michelle:

Diagnosed with cancer in 2017.  Operation, to Chemotherapy and withered with weakness, and I cannot grasp the paradox.  In Depression you fight suicide yet with cancer, this does not seem to happen.  Is it that cancer comes from within and there are no answers and altruism determines that you have become ill and you must help to find resolution, if not for you but for others.  However as a suicide survivor for decades now, perhaps its not the neurosis but the fact that you have survived prepares the way for yet another survival strategy only this time it is cancer and depression you have to deal with.  Book published December 2018:  Fortune Favours the Brave by Michelle Marcella Clarke https://amazon.com/1912639610/

But what about those who regard the physical act of taking their life as repugnant. These people will do everything to destroy themselves except admit that is what they wish to achieve. They fail to take responsibility for the final action to conclude their lives.  Karl Menninger, Psychologist, calls these – the Chronic Suicides. This includes alcoholics and drug addicts who kill themselves slowly while protesting that they are only attempting to make their life tolerable. Also he highlights the large number of road accidents that are inexplicable. These statistics are not recorded.

SUICIDE AND LITERATURE

Dante and the Middle Ages
Dante – one of the grimmest cantos of the Inferno relates to suicides.

In the 7th century, below the burning heretics and murderers stewing in their river of hot blood, is a dark, pathless wood where the souls of suicides grow for eternity in the shape of warped poisonous thorns.

Some of the Greatest Artists including Dante, Shakespeare, Bach, Dickens, Donatello, Beethoven, – the mid-life crisis is the way through to their finest work. It was more profound, reflective and ultimately more serene than anything they had achieved before.

John Donne and the Renaissance
In the Middle Ages, the taboo against suicide accompanied the intense pre-occupation with death and its most horrifying details.

T.S. Eliot wrote the Waste Land in Zurich, when convalescing from some kind of breakdown and, possibly, while in psychotherapy. In that poem inner chaos is projected outward onto society as the collapse of all traditional forms and values; but to express this sense of universal disintegration the poet created out of chaos itself a new style of formal order – detached, knowledgeable, subtle.

Virginia Woolf drowned herself, a victim of her own excessive sensitivity; artists are most susceptible.

Sense of quiet desperation explored: Eliot in extreme desperation said ‘that it will never be painted, and no actor will ever seize it. And to describe it, I think I must go back and be with them’…

‘That numbness – beyond hope, despair, terror and, certainly, beyond heroics – is, I think, the final quantum to which all the modish forms of twentieth-century alienation are reduced. Under the energy, appetite, and constant diversity of the modern arts is the obdurate core of blankness and insentience which no amount of creative optimism and effort can wholly break down or remove. It is like, for a believer, the final, illumination that God is not good.

A psychiatrist has defined it, in more contemporary terms, as that ‘psychic numbing’ which occurs in an overwhelming encounter with death. That is, when death is everywhere and on such a vast scale that it becomes indifferent, impersonal, inevitable and, finally, without meaning, the only way to survive however briefly, is by shutting oneself off utterly from every feeling, so that one becomes invulnerable, not like an armoured animal but like a stone:

… psychic closing-off can serve a highly adaptive function.
It does so partly through a process of denial
(If I feel nothing, then death is not taking place)…

Further, it protects the survivor from a sense of complete helplessness, from feeling himself totally inactivated by the force invading his environment.  By closing himself off, he resists being ‘acted upon’ or altered. We may thus say that the survivor initially undergoes a radical but temporary diminution of his sense of actuality in order to avoid losing this sense completely and permanently; he undergoes a reversible symbolic death in order to avoid a permanent physical or psychic death.”

Dr Lifton described this as the defence mechanisms activated by the survivors of  Horishima and Nazi concentration camps.  Horishima confirmed a sharing in species annihilation.

Camus

‘Suicide is prepared within the silence of the heart, as is a great work of art’

Boris Pasternak – Epitaph for Mayakovsky

‘To start with what is most important: we have no conception of the inner torture which precedes suicide.’

Conclusion:

“People who are physically tortured on the rack keep losing consciousness, their suffering is so great that its unendurable intensity shortens the end.  But a man who is thus at the mercy of the executioner is not annihilated when he faints from pain, for he is present at his own end, his past belongs to him, his memories are his and, if he chooses, he can make use of them, they can help him before his death.”

‘But a man who decides to commit suicide puts a full stop to his being, he turns back on his past, he declares himself a bankrupt and his memories to be unreal. They can no longer help or save him, he has put himself beyond their reach. The continuity of his inner life is broken, his personality is at an end. And perhaps what finally makes him kill himself is not the firmness of his resolve but the unbearable quality of this anguish which belongs to no one, of this suffering in the absence of the sufferer, of this waiting which is empty because life has stopped and can no longer fill it’

Summed Up:

‘What is certain that they all (other writers outlined) suffered beyond description, to the point where suffering has become a mental sickness. And, as we bow in homage to their gifts and to their bright memory, we should bow compassionately before their suffering.’ I endorse this.

Society must move towards inclusiveness.

The foregoing is compiled from the book :

THE SAVAGE GOD – A STUDY OF SUICIDE BY A. ALVAREZ (1971)

To my battle with manic depression:-

---

Published: 

Aware magazine August 2001, St Patrick’s Foundation by Michelle Clarke

‘We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars’

Quotation: Oscar Wilde

The truth is that for some of us, while in the gutter, the stars can still be seen, but for others who often may be deemed by others to lead a privileged life, a time in their life may occur when the dark, star-less gutter comprises their life.

Be it of their own making or not, and who is anyone to assume the position of judge? They have reached that place where the dark mist seeps through their mind and thinking processes. The reality is as stark as a life or death route.

I have been there more than a few times and yearned for the blow that would give peace. I sought that inadvertent accident. I have stood watching the No. 10 bus, my mind focused on how wholly effective the method would be? There could be nothing worse than not attaining one’s objective.

Characteristics, in my opinion, can influence the ultimate decision. In my case, I regard empathy as a prominent factor. To empathise, is to basically stand in another persons shoes and it is this that proves each time the deciding factor. You see, from personal experience, the effect of suicide on those concerned, particularly the family and friends, and all who come in contact with the death by suicide, is damaging.

The ‘Holy Spirit’ or whoever you choose can work in very mysterious ways:-
While I was living in England in the 1980’s, I was a commuter, by train daily, to the City, where I worked. It was a hard winter and there was a lot of snow and frost causing major delays and cancellations on the trains. One day as I stood waiting to board an overcrowded, last train out of Liverpool Street, the train driver felt kindly toward me and invited me to join him in his part of the train. We chatted but interestingly the subject changed to suicide. Before long I realised a perspective I never looked at. He angrily spoke of the selfishness of people who weekly threw themselves before the trains. He and his fellow train drivers had to deal emotionally, physically and otherwise with these harrowing events. This always remains with me albeit I know when things become so bleak, this rationality scarcely applies. However, if at all possible try and keep a level of empathy in mind.

My depressions have been violent and numerous yet every time I ‘resurrect out of the ashes’, I am caught in a near ecstasy of enthusiasm to ask why, seek further research and responses, to read more, to assist anyone as much as possible whom I feel may need help i.e. within the protection boundaries I must set for myself. Opportunities each time present themselves and it is these experiences that drive me on – I am constantly in search of any answer.

Written by Michelle Clarke
August 2001 – during a very disturbed yet enlightening period in my life.

---

Christmas Eve 2015: I know out there loneliness is found amid the joviality of Christmas time.  It does not have to be that way.

A saying I found ‘Flowers grow out of dark moments’.  I have found in my archives articles written by me, in the hope that I can help others who struggle with Black Dog – Sir Winston Churchill who was no stranger to depression.  I will include some of these articles and replies to people on an open publishing site I used to write on  because the ‘feeling of depression’ remains the same but the experiences alter when people learn to overcome it.  That ‘quiet desperation’ that moves you to the cliff edge must be challenged and you must try and believe that like all else about life, this mood or blackness will pass and that is the certainty.  Check out this WHO site viewed by over 6 million. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiCrniLQGYc

---

February: 2003. ‘WILL I MAKE IT THIS TIME?

I returned to Trinity in October with more ambition than physical energy, driven by that goal of ‘being the change you want to see’ . I want to break through that structure determined to impede the education process that is driven by the US with its rational scientific preference. An educational system must be open to a variety of people, with experience, ability to learn, understand and continue to learn. This crucial for a sense of balance.

This is such an incomplete explanation as to why I continue to cling on to life but yet I am driven by a combination of gut feeling and destiny. There can be no other reason why I continue to persevere. Each life threatening experience can only be accepted if there is some reason. Living has never been high on my agenda. Money does not give you the desire to live, the desire to be motivated. It is deeper in the psychic of the person and is driven by a cosmic destiny that coaxes the individual to respond to the society they live within.

When I go through the horrors of a week like this last one that ended with Valentines night, the honesty part is I do not have a reason why it happened. I know when the sudden dip occurs, like a sequence  where I point by point build up the case ‘for getting out’, I try the ‘breaks’ I know from past experience but it is more, I have tipped off that equilibrium, I strive so ardently to maintain. I hate myself to the degree that I could tear myself to pieces. I don’t want to get out of bed, I don’t want to eat, I listen to the phone continuing to ring rationalising that I ought to answer but can’t. I don’t want anyone by this stage – I am nearing there, the bottom.

Yet again I must endure that reminiscent cold, the like of which is only felt in the depth of depressions, as it pierces through my heart and soul. I dig for the positive, I have the rules written out, but no it is best described as flying down out of control on a roller coaster and that shrill feeling that can be summed up in the words… Will I make it this time? What am I going to do…? When will this dichotomy of the useless and that sense of an assigned purpose, with these reminders of ‘losing it’ end. I need a break from the relentless tide that ebbs and flows in the way my mood level swings.

You begin to pull through – you think for days nothing has penetrated your numbed mind and then you find yourself where you wanted to be but didn’t think you would reach. This time it was the Peace March. One of the only other things I am conscious of doing is sending quotes of Gandhi and Einstein to all heads of Government department in the hope that someone, just someone would think of a man who sought recourse through peaceful means. Nothing but paradoxes!!!

The strange part of today’s experience (I evidently had left my quarantine) was I went to a second-hand book I frequent. It is not usual for me to eavesdrop. I did and as I did, I felt the cold piercing through my bones again. A young girl, just 18, had jumped in front of a train. The man behind the counter evidently knew her as did the woman who was buying some books. They spoke – I looked yet listening at a book titled ‘Tracing the insanity in the Royal family’ (quite ironic). The man made a statement that was particularly profound. He said ‘she must have just lost it for that moment’ and jumped. That sum’s it up – that is what suicide is about. The depression exists but the readjustment period, is the time, when one needs to be most aware – that moment determines in most cases.

It is the person’s psyche being in such pain yet the person does not know from one moment to the next, if they will just put in that little extra effort to keep going. I always talk about fighting within myself – the outside mask is almost perfected, the laugh to. Shrill is what it feels like inside – I promise you so many suicides are effected by way of motor bikes and cars.

Written by Michelle Clarke:

---

…..Ironically time has moved on; I have survived enough to try and help this man called Micheal

Sunday, Oct 10 2004, 11:08pm

by Michelle Clarke – Social Justice and Ethics

Micheal

I read your response a few days ago. The facts are harsh and confirm what I feel about the society we live in today. To me, the rise in the number of suicides particularly men (1980 to date) correlate to the expectation (be corruption driven or otherwise) this Celtic Society has for each individual member.

People tell you – Get Tough; Harden up; Refuse to accept that you think differently about life and worse again insist that you join their camp – your destination is nothing but inadequate. Basically, this is the way they judge you.

The interconnection and solidarity of our society has broken down; the word inclusiveness to me represents the world of those within the corporate click – those people who drive the cars that dictate status; who live in the right areas; who take several holidays a year; those who have the arrogance to put down those with sentiment and categorise them as basically nothing. They mock them among their clique for their non entity; the stigma is there and has a resounding reality.  Our school curriculum promotes this and this is further endorsed by our universities. There is an educational stranglehold that determines a certain kind of ‘success’ within the world order. Noam Chomsky is worth reading for greater insight in what inequality exists.

I fell out of the nest at the age of 32 and I battle. I know the other side and I experience the reality of now. I have the right address but I don’t feel accepted. The only people I know who accept me are the few I met on the Trinity Horizon programme because we know deep down the hell within.  It that Black Dog appears and strikes the spirit to nothing and all you can do is hope you make it through yet again.  All I can say is keep thinking of the word Hope……there is a reason for those who are sensitive to the pains and anguish within society and why such people exist.

It is my own personal belief that Dr. David Kelly felt duty bound to humanity to commit suicide, to highlight the need for people at every level of society to realise the gravity of the Iraq War and the fact that the weapons of mass destruction were not in existence. Durkheim; sociologist in the 1800’s spoke of this in terms of Anomie.

Poets, writers, artists often express what others are afraid to feel. These people use Denial as their boundaries and have the capacity to have distractions like alcohol, consumer goods; holidays; fast cars; to deal with their basic needs.

For others and often the children of people with what appears to be ‘ALL’ escape into the sensual, the sensitivities and often take their lives.  The pain in society adds to their accumulated pain and the only answer is out. Yes; the answer is Suicide.

The question for those who remain is Why? What drove them to such an awful extreme?  What amount of pain in society can be swept over by some and yet demolish to death others? Where is the research carried out by the Humanities in our Universities? Sometimes, I feel it just gathers dust because people do not have the impetus to truly assist those who are vulnerable in society. Science means to learn yet this word is surrounded by parameters in Ireland that submerge it under inability to have an economic value. We have no grasp or value on anything that does not appear to have a social value.

I am particularly fond of Professor Kennelly. So often in the most unusual of places I have seen his smiling face. The other day as I wandered in pain to Haddington Road Church I picked up a magazine. It included an article about Professor Kennelly’s retirement and a poem simply titled “Good” that he had attributed to Sr. Stanilaus Kennedy. Alas in a scattered state I cannot include it now but I will find it and enter upload on this site. The simplistic words make you realise there are others who feel just like you do and it is worth the fight. Life is about mystery. Maybe the onslaught of corruption within Ireland now is the threshold that switches the equilibrium towards equity and it is the people who are sensitive who are the people who will enlighten others about the lack of social justice and about the level of inequality.

October is a particularly poignant month. It is about the change of seasons; it is about thinking; it is about hurting deep within; so all I say is be alert and think of others who may be vulnerable and just a little to soft for this world and form a connectivity with them.

All the best

Michelle

 End:  (Reviewed and amended 27th May 2019)

2020 I am here:

2017 breast cancer so I wrote a book: Fortune Favours the Brave https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912639610/

Source: The Time for Action is Now; it is never too late to do something. Antoine de Saint-Exupery