Penny Dinners holds vigil to mark Suicide Prevention Day

TO MARK World Suicide Prevention Day, Cork Penny Dinners held its annual vigil to remember loved ones lost to suicide, and those left behind, on Wednesday.

Darkness had fallen on Albert Quay, but the pavement and the railings along the river were lit up with golden night-light candles as a lone piper, Seán Murphy, played the haunting ‘Fáinne Geal an Lae’ (The Dawning of the Day).

On the river, a speedboat piloted by Dinnie Curtin and Derry Falvey from Cork City Missing Persons circled the water, with the mascot Bear Hope at the helm.

A high point of the evening came when the Lord Mayor of Cork, Councillor Kieran McCarthy, sang ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, from the 1945 Rodgers and Hammerstein show ‘Carousel’, which was later a number one hit in 1963 for Liverpudlian Merseybeat group Gerry and the Pacemakers and was subsequently adopted as Liverpool FC’s anthem.

Tributes were paid to the late Sinead O’Connor, with the High Hopes Choir delivering a beautiful version of ‘Nothing Compares 2U’, and to the late Christy Dignam, whose song ‘Crazy World’ has long been a High Hopes favourite.

Among those in attendance were representatives of the Irish Defence Forces veterans group, the Organisation of National Ex-Servicepeople (ONE), Cork City First Responders, Clonakilty Mental Health Awareness Group, with Sinead Crowley, Cork Mental Health Foundation, Cork City Misising Persons, and Mallow Search and Rescue.

Also present were Mary Crilly and Dola Twomey from the Sexual Violence Centre Cork.

Prayers were offered for Crosshaven Coast Guard, and for little Emili Roman, who had died in a drowning in Fountainstown during the week, and for Emili’s family.

“We prayed for the families of all who have suffered tragedies, recently and down through the years,” Caitríona Twomey, volunteer co-ordinator with Cork Penny Dinners, told The Echo.

“It was a beautiful and very emotional evening and it sent a powerful message about the terrible loss that people leave behind.”

As the vigil came to a close, lone bugler Ross O’Hara sounded ‘The Last Post’, and the veterans of the ONE gave a salute of respect to all of those lost and to all of those left behind, while the candles flickered on into the night.

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