Suicide in Ireland in the 19th century

Introduction This paper is an attempt to determine the extent and characteristics of suicide in 19th-century Ireland and the proportion of these that occurred in asylums.

The procedures used in this presentation involve analysis of data from the 1841 and 1851 Censuses of Ireland and the Reports of the Registrar-General of Ireland from 1864 to 1899 and the Annual Reports of the Inspectors of Lunacy, 1850 to 1899.

Reported suicides had relatively low rates in the 19th century, ranging from 0.9 to 3.3 per 100 000 per year. The proportion of these suicides that occurred in asylums was low at ~4%.

The reporting of suicide as a cause of death was relatively rare in the first-half of the 19th century in Ireland, but increased in frequency progressively throughout the second-half of that century. The reported numbers are likely to have minimised the real rates because of under-reporting.