We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
A 500 KILOMETRE cycle in aid of raising awareness of suicide has got under way in Mayo this morning.
The 1LifeCycle campaign are aiming to raise awareness of suicide and depression in Ireland by embarking on a 500 kilometre journey from Westport to Dublin and back again.
The group of cyclists set off on their journey from Castlebar Street in Westport at 6am this morning on a journey that will take them through Claremorris, Williamstown, Roscommon, Mullingar, Enfield, and finish in Dublin later today.
The group will then stay overnight in Dublin before leaving from O’Connell Street at 6am tomorrow doing the same route in reverse.
Suicide has claimed over 500 lives in Ireland every year for the last ten years, and the campaigners say they want to do the cycle in order to “inform people of all the good work the various groups and charities do, such as 1life and Console”.
They are being sponsored by a number of local businesses in the Westport area and have spent the last six months in training.
You can follow their progress today through Twitter and Facebook pages and can donate to the cause through their MyCharity.ie page with funds going to the 1life suicide helpline which you can call on 1800 247 100.
To contact Samaritans, visit www.samaritans.ie or call 1850 60 90 90.
Pieta House is a free service and can be contacted at 01 601 0000 or mary@pieta.ie. It runs two centres of excellence in Limerick and Dublin, as well as two outreach centres.
Other helplines include TeenLine Ireland 1800 833 634, Console 1800 201 890 and Aware at 1890 303 302.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Best of luck to them all…depression and suicide are rampant in Ireland, even more so in these trying times.
Could you not post that somewhere else? It has absolutely no relevance to this topic and is insensitive to the many families whose lives have been turned upside down. Well done to all participants.
Fair play to them. It’s great to see that so many people are raising awareness for suicide lately.
It’s ver badly needed.
Good luck to all involved.
Utterly unbelievable how little the Government is doing about this. We had a recent TV campaign about carbon monoxide poisioning in the home – while very sad, there are far more deaths from suicide and distress from attempted suicide. When will the Government invest in the positive mental health of the nation? We need advertising campaigns both in national media and in local communities with numbers to contact. We need free suicide awareness and prevention training to be available in every community (eg safeTALK half-day training where you learn to become alert to the signs that somebody may be considering suicide and how to connect them with help) and most of all we need programmes in schools on how to look after your mental health, how to get help, how to help your friends, to stem the shocking levels of emotional distress and suicide among our young people. Do it NOW.
There is programmes in school regarding mental health. In sixth year there must’ve been 6-7 classes dedicated to informing us about talking if we’re feeling down etc. Especially coming up to exam time .
Eh, go back to bed you clown. Great cause and fair play to all participating
Good cause well done
Enda should put that photo on his office wall, and look at it when thinking of more ways to take from the people who put him there ….
Why even bother ?
Fantastic cause and challenge!
We’ve two teams crossing the Irish Sea today, in zapcat powerboats! All in aid of Pieta House!!
Check out http://www.thundercatchallenge.com for details!!
I’d say the cycle back is going to be tough, very tough!
Fair play to them all!
A great cause!
….and here is me dreading going mountain biking tomorrow!!
Thanks folks, all done and dusted for us, was tough on the way home, we did the first 250km in 8,5 hrs and the return 250 in 9.5 hours.
All who started finished the trip.
GREAT cause, its good to talk
Great that our society is no longer hoodwinked by pseudo spiritual leaders and that psychological conditions are not as stigmatised as they were . Go on
Mankind you can do it!!
well done to everyone involved you,s all are an inspiration and should be very proud of ur great achievement
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say