The family of a young garda who took her own life let cameras film her funeral to help highlight mental health issues and suicide.
Heartbreaking scenes from inside the church will be broadcast as part of next week’s episode of The Guards: Inside The K.
Pals from the district – which serves Blanchardstown, Cabra and Finglas in Dublin – attended the service to give tragic Carol Gibney a ceremonial burial.
Supt Liam Carolan told how officers were left reeling when the popular young member of the team was found dead at her Co Meath home.
He said: “Just because somebody wears a uniform doesn’t mean they’re more robust than anybody else. It [suicide] affects all walks of life.
“It just shows it doesn’t matter what you do as a profession – you’re
as at risk of mental health issues as anybody else.”
The daily struggle faced by gardai who must maintain a tough exterior that may belie their softer side was highlighted at Carol’s funeral service.
Mourners were told: “She joined An Garda Siochana because she had a genuine need to help others, but she struggled to ask for help herself.”
Officers answer an average of five mental health calls every day but they stress they are only plugging a gap in services.
People in distress, who are self-harming or suicidal, are often locked
in a cell and the Armed Response Unit are regularly called out to deal with incidents.
Supt Carolan said: “We’re police officers, we’re doing the best we can for people but it’s not right.
“There should be multi-disciplinary teams to deal with this.
“In the past 12 months we’ve had multiple attempted suicides in the district. We’ve had people trying to jump off bridges, to throw themselves into the canal – in one case a Garda was knocked unconscious and had seven stitches to his head.”
Chief Supt Finbarr Murphy also called for more mental health support.
He said: “We try to access resources for them but it’s very difficult. It is an area that causes us huge pressure.
“You might have a young guard who has taken somebody off a bridge and an hour later the person walks out of a police station because there’s no services there to help them.”
- The Guards: Inside The K continues on Virgin Media One on Wednesday
