The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
A MEMBER of the Doolin Unit of the Irish Coastguard has helped to talk down “11 or 12 people” contemplating taking their own lives at the Cliffs of Moher. Thomas Doherty has been a volunteer with the unit for the last 30 years and he said that over the course of that time, he has talked down 11 or 12 people from the cliff edge “from an 80-year-old woman to a woman in her 40s”. The softly spoken and self-effacing Doolin man said, “Anybody that has been on the edge has come back for me. It is a good success rate actually. I hope it stays that way.” Asked what he says to people he suspects may be about to jump, Mr Doherty said, “I ask them straight out, ‘are they thinking about self-harm?’ You have to get straight to the point.” Mr Doherty has undergone specialist training to deal with such situations and said, “If they say they want …
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