This is something my brother Mark is involved in. There's several people shown in photos at the article (read the whole lot) but he isnt one of the people shown. He has some stories.
http://limerickvoice.com/news/an-evenin ... er-angels/
Sounds and symbols mean different things in different places. In Dublin, the sound of a helicopter can signal a thermal imaging sweep for illegal grow houses in the drugs trade. Across Irish motorways, the same sound may be a sign of a collision and a note to drivers to expect heavy traffic. To the people of Limerick, the whirring of a helicopter’s rotor blades overhead can often mean someone’s in the river.
Over the last decade, Limerick city has almost consistently had the highest suicide rates in Ireland. The city maintained the grim title exclusively from 2012 to 2016.
In 2014, the average suicide rate in Ireland per 100,000 people was 11. In Limerick it was 27.1. In 2019, the Irish average was 8.5. In Limerick, 16.7.
These figures represent the city alone. A separate tally is kept for the rest of the county.
One group that’s been working tirelessly to help fight these worrying figures is Limerick Suicide Watch (LSW).
Limerick Suicide Watch
Limerick Suicide Watch was founded in 2016 in response to the growing suicide crisis in the city. Its members can be seen four nights a week patrolling the banks of the Shannon in the early hours of the morning dressed in bright orange.
Since its foundation, the group has clocked up more than 800 ‘interventions’ – its term for providing aid and assistance to those contemplating, and often attempting, suicide.
Between May 2020 and May 2021, the team clocked up 87 interventions alone.
To date, LSW is believed to have directly saved more than 180 lives. Its team of more than 70 volunteers patrol Limerick’s quays a collective 5,540 hours each year.
In a single night, over four-hour shifts that regularly run far longer than their allotted time, LSW volunteers will walk more than 10 kilometres searching the quays and banks of the Shannon for signs of people in distress or worse.
Limerick Voice reporter Adam Leahy took to the streets with the Limerick Suicide Watch team, shadowing its members on patrol on a cold, rainy night in the Treaty City.