NO ONE knows exactly what happened. It's quite possible that no one ever will. But last week, 11-yearold Limerick schoolboy Mark O'Neill was found dead in his bedroom in what appears to have been a suicide.

On the same day, 27-yearold Eileen Murphy and her four-year-old son, Evan, fell to their deaths from the Cliffs of Moher in Co Clare. Although her parents dispute this, some reports say Murphy deliberately took her own life and that of her son.

Maybe they never meant to do it. Locals believe that young Mark meant only to give his family a fright. No one really knows.

What is known, however, is that over 400 families go through the same pain every year, facing the same unanswered questions. Ireland may have one of the lower rates of suicide in Europe overall, but when it comes to young people, we are near the top of the league - a worrying trend that shows no sign of abating.

The Irish government has consistently failed to put money into mental-health services and is lagging behind on awareness programmes.

In 2005, 431 people died by suicide and 399 died in road traffic accidents. But in that same year, the government put 25 times more funding into road safety than they did into suicide prevention.

"What does that say about the political will to tackle suicide?" questioned Dan Neville, Fine Gael TD and president of the Irish Association of Suicidology. "There has been consistently poor investment into the critical development of services. 22 years ago, a report for the future found that multi-disciplinary teams of psychiatrists, psychologists, psychotherapists and trained nurses were needed in communities to provide adequate care. These still haven't materialised."

Not only have they not materialised, but public psychiatric services in Ireland are over-stretched to the verge of collapse. Over 2,000 children and young people are waiting up to four years to be assessed by a psychiatrist in many parts of the country, while emergency services for suicidal young people are non-existent in many places.

Seventy percent of psychiatrists don't have psychologists available to refer their patients to and this is just the tip of the iceberg, say professionals.

"If you look at services for a suicidal child at, for instance, 5pm on a Friday afternoon, you will quite simply have no bed for them, " said Colman Noctor, child and adolescent psychiatric nurse specialist with St John of God Lucena Clinic Services in Dublin.

"There are only 20 beds in Leinster and most of these are Monday to Friday only.

Children end up either in adult psychiatric wards, which are quite disturbing environments, or in a paediatric ward, which is equally unsuitable. Emergency services for adolescents are simply not there; they don't exist and it's the same all over Leinster and Munster."

There are a number of reasons why our suicide rate amongst young people is so high. But the rapid change in our society in the last decade is a major contributory factor.

Alcohol consumption has increased by 44% since 1990, there has been a huge decrease in religious practice, crime is on the rise, as is marriage breakdown, and the downside of a booming economy is that there is more pressure on people to succeed.

"Whenever there is an economic boom or a depression in a country, suicide rates are likely to go up, " said Professor John Connolly of the Irish Association of Suicidology.

"And Ireland has seen more changes in the last 25 years than in the previous 50. I am hopeful that we will balance out in time but there has to be a commitment to make positive change."

In September 2005, the government published a 10year strategy to try to reduce the suicide rate in Ireland by targeting specific groups such as young men, prisoners and the unemployed. But this strategy requires a huge amount of commitment and funding from future governments and whether it will be a success remains to be seen.

In August 2005, Maureen Bolger, a Dublin mother whose 16-year-old son, Darren, took his own life, set up Teenline, a support group for teenagers experiencing suicidal thoughts. The helpline, which is open only on Friday and Saturday nights, initially took 20 calls a week. Last December, they had 934 calls.

"We can barely cope with the demand and we're planning on extending our services, " said Bolger. "But I believe until we can bring our programme into schools around the country, the problem of suicide amongst young people is only going to get worse."

Teenline has visited three schools to date as part of its suicide intervention programme. Students are given a talk on the effect suicide has on family members and are encouraged to openly discuss their feelings.

"It's about intervention, awareness and prevention, ' said Bolger. "We talk to them about the realities of suicide, how it means you're never coming back, how it changes the life of your family forever.

We get them to open up and try to get rid of the stigma attached to mental-health problems. If adults find it hard getting to grips with what depression is, how can we expect our young people to be able to understand it?"

After these talks, Bolger has been approached by teenagers who admit they were thinking of taking their own lives. One 16-year-old girl had been saving up pills and was planning to take an overdose.

"She cried and said she hadn't realised what it would mean to her family or how her little sister could be the one to find her, " recalled Bolger. "We got her help. That's what she needed and there are so many more teenagers out there who need it. Schools need to be more open to the idea of programmes like ours.

We're not putting suicidal thoughts into young people's heads. We're tackling it."

Adolescence is a particularly difficult time for many people, according to Noctor.

"It's a time in your life when the reality of what your life is going to be really hits you, " he said. "When you're 10, 11, 12, you're going to be David Beckham or a film star. Then you reach your teens and start making career choices and all of a sudden you find you are becoming the person you will be, rather than the person you had hoped to be. That can be hard to deal with for many."

In 2005, Childline received 552 calls from young people at risk of suicide. More worryingly, calls related to bullying rose by over 50%.

"So-called cyber bullying involving mobile phone text messages, emails and even website pages like Bebo have become very effective bullying tools, " said Childline CEO Paul Gilligan. "Bullying has a huge impact on self-esteem, which is important for arming yourself against depression later in life."

Three-in-four Irish people know someone who took their own life. A huge number of people are affected by suicide every year but, while attitudes are beginning to change, there is still a significant stigma attached to mental health.

"People will talk about everything, from MRSA to cancer, but they won't talk about this, " said Neville.

"When Prime Time revealed that children were waiting up to four years to be psychologically assessed, we weren't surprised. The papers had a field day the next day and the country was shocked for maybe a week. Then it's gone.

Forgotten about again. When is real action going to be taken?"

A few years ago, the Scottish Executive put the equivalent of Euro12m into suicide prevention and saw their suicide rates drop by 12 per cent.

A similar programme in Australia saw suicide rates there plunge.

With 60,000 people selfharming every year, 11,000 presenting to A&E and over 400 suicides every year, action needs to be taken to save lives. It's clear that people need help. The problem is that no one really knows.

Teenline: 1800 833 634 (Friday and Saturday from 9pm to 3am.

Anyone interested in becoming a volunteer can call 4622122, while those who have lost a loved one to suicide can contact Maureen directly on 0857416019. ) Childline: 1800 66 66 66;

www. childline. ie.

Samaritans: 1850 60 90 90;

www. samaritans. ir or email jo@samaritans. org Aware : 1890 303 302;

www. aware. ie