Treaty Suicide Prevention share heart-wrenching stories from patrolling river bank

WHEN he saw a woman enter the fast-moving water of the River Shannon, a Limerick Treaty Suicide Prevention (LTSP) volunteer couldn’t help but jump in to save her.

“I couldn’t stand there and watch her. I’m a strong swimmer, but it’s not part of our job. We don’t normally do this. But I couldn’t stand there and watch her drown,” says Pete O’Hara, who has been volunteering with the group for nine months.

On a Sunday night, this reporter joins the group who is braving the cold of December to patrol along the banks of the river.

Wearing fluorescent jackets and throw bags, about a dozen of volunteers split up in groups to walk around the three bridges.

LTSP patrol alongside the river banks every Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday to provide assistance to those who need it most.

In recent times, Limerick has faced what the volunteers refer to as a “silent pandemic”, which comes as no surprise as the city has had the highest rate of suicide nationwide over the last five years.

“We’ve had this kind of silent pandemic with suicide for the last couple of years," says David O’Mahony, who has joined the group seven months ago.

Last year, their group alone had 250 interventions.

“We’re a prevention group, so our main role is to prevent people from entering the water. But with that, we meet anyone who's on the river, we come in contact with the homeless,” says David as we walk to the Clayton Hotel.

When it comes to the worst and someone jumps into the river, the volunteers ring the coast guards straight away to activate emergency response. Within five minutes, a fire ambulance, a marine search and a helicopter make their way to the fast-flowing body of water.

“It's overwhelming to see the amounts of people that are joining, it's nice to see that there is such a fast response where the emergency services in Limerick are well-prepared for what's going on,” notes David.

LTSP’s main role is prevention. While on patrol, they often have to ask the hardest question you could ask someone - ‘Are you suicidal’?

“When we do meet someone, we get chatting to them. You're going to have a feeling that it's not going well, we do have to ask the question ‘Are you suicidal?’ I know when I first started, it was one of the hardest things for me to do, because it's not a normal thing to ask someone,” says David.

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“Once we know they're suicidal, we try to make them safer, to bring them away from the river.”

After seeing his dad volunteering for many years with similar groups in the region, Pete O’Hara joined LTSP.

“There was something calling me to do it. I used to see him walking around and I used to think you’d have to have some kind of qualification or be a good swimmer, but that's not part of it.”

He explains: “What we do is keep an eye out for people who look distressed and we talk to them. They could be fine, we just go say hello to them. But you do get a lot of people who are highly distressed. We've all our training done, we do first aid, we all carry defibrillators around with us. We’re first responders to a lot of accidents around the city as well.”

At this time of the year, the volunteers are busy.

“I'm assuming the numbers are a lot higher this year than they were last year, just from talking to the group. We'd often go out and you could have two or three interventions at the one time. And that's only one night out, and we do four nights a week. I think we're getting to a time of the year now where it's going to be extremely busy. Once you get into December, the pressure, the stress, it's too much for a lot of people to handle,” he says.

One night, Pete jumped into the river to rescue a woman.

“There was a woman just sitting right here. She was sitting on the ledge inside, she had her ten-year-old son beside her. I just asked her, was she okay? She wouldn't answer us.”

Hands on the ledge, the woman was focused on the water. Seconds later, she jumped.

“When she jumped in, she kind of went under for about 10 to 15 seconds. She came back up, we threw her 12 bags and she wouldn't take them. She couldn't swim. She went back down again, but the hands were gone, she was panicking,” Pete recalls.

He couldn’t stand there and watch her drown.

“She was gone under again, but I couldn't see her. I don't know how, but I caught her in my arms. I got her back up and I managed to get her back to the ladder but she wouldn’t go up the ladder. She was kicking, she told me to let her go.”

Most of the people Pete has helped were men under 40.

“A lot of them are people with high-end jobs. They're stressed, whether it's money, problems at home. Not so much drugs or alcohol or anything like that. The pressure of life really is what it is at the moment,” he explains.

Pete points out that people may go into the water out of impulse.

“Someone could think they're having the worst time of their life, and give them a week, and they're like, I can't believe I was gonna do that. The river is a natural draw for people to come down, and that’s why we’re needed.”

If you need help, you can reach out to LTSP via 085 784 5347.