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A couple who lost their child to suicide have written to the Garda commissioner to request that the policies on the arrest and detention of juveniles for minor offenses be re-evaluated.
Johanna and John O’Hara firmly believe that their 20-year-old son, Niall, was devastated by his arrest over a public order issue on a student night in Sligo two weeks before his death.
Niall was in his junior year at Maynooth University and showed no signs to suggest that he was unhappy until after his arrest in Sligo in early March 2019.
She did not tell her parents, but the night before her death she spoke to several friends about her concerns about the upcoming court appearance.
That night he drank heavily again and was arrested a second time for another minor incident of public order.
He had never had any problems before and the next day his mother found his body near the family home on the outskirts of Granard, Co Longford.
Her parents have requested a meeting with the commissioner, Drew Harris.
“We, the heartbroken parents of Niall, are now writing to highlight our concerns as a matter of urgency in the hope that they will prevent similar tragedies in the future,” the letter says.
“We are confident that you too will realize the urgency of these concerns and will do everything in your power to bring about the necessary change.” The couple have also encountered what they believe was great resistance in their attempts to find out what happened to Niall. They want the policies on the adult precaution system, family liaison officers, risk assessment and the gardaí’s duty of care to be examined.
“We have so many unanswered questions and we deserve the right to have the gardaí answer them and then we can go ahead and cry,” says John O’Hara.
“Let Niall be the catalyst for change,” says Johanna.
“It requires a massive reform. Considering what we have lost, what we ask is not much. If the commissioner could walk a mile in our shoes, he would not hesitate to make the changes. “
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