ACCORDING to the old adage, a trouble shared is a trouble halved. In times of crisis, people need to be able to turn to someone who can provide a non-judgemental listening ear.
Hundreds of Clare volunteers have been providing this service free of charge for the past three decades. The Clare and Ennis branch of the Samaritans celebrates its 30th anniversary this Thursday.
Thousands of people from the four corners of the county are extremely grateful that the service, which started from humble beginnings with 56 volunteers, has gone from strength to strength and continues to be one of the most active organisations in the county.
What sets the Samaritans apart from other organisations is the fact there is always a Samaritan at the end of a phone 24 hours a day. It is the biggest voluntary emotional support organisation in the country and works in co-operation with other groups who provide a different service, such as Pieta House, the suicide and self-harm intervention centre.
By June 2007, 464 volunteers had worked for the Clare and Ennis branch of the Samaritans. It is estimated that between 560 and 600 volunteers have gone through the branch since it started. There are currently about 2,000 volunteers in the country, including 130 from Clare, as well as two paid administrators in Dublin. The branch now has two phone lines for callers and one office phone. There are a number of volunteers with lengths of service of up to 25 and 28 years, which illustrates their loyalty and dedication.
Owen O’Mahony, Doora, Ennis, who was the first director in 1985; Theresa Nagle, Ennis and Mary Griffin, Ennis are three of the founding members, who are still Samaritans 30 years later.
Some 15,000 dialogue contacts were made with the Clare and Ennis branch of the Samaritans in 2009. In 2010, 15,922 contacts were made by way of phone, face-to-face meetings and emails delivered and this increased by about 16% to 17,383 in 2011.
The service continues to work on a rota basis with volunteers committing to a minimum of 18 hours a month, including one night shift. Although none of the Clare Samaritans are paid, it costs in the region of €50,000 annually to provide the service. All expenditure is keep to a minimum and the volunteers maintain the building and car park themselves.
Reverend Prebendary Edward Chad Varah, an Anglican vicar in London, founded the Samaritans in 1953. He wrote a book outlining his principles and beliefs on the benefits of listening and non-judgemental therapy, which proved a very useful guide for the Clare Samaritans. This was also introduced by coincidence by Carol Rodgers in the United States, yet Chad wasn’t aware of this and had never met him.
“Chad was particularly proud of Ennis because it was the first branch in a rural town in Ireland. There were branches in Dublin, Belfast, Cork and Galway, Limerick and Waterford. We were the first country town to have a branch.
“I met him a few times during training sessions and he told me about how proud he was of the Ennis branch. Sligo was the next country town after Ennis to form a branch, then Tralee. Many people thought we would not survive because we wouldn’t get the numbers because of the population at the time,” founding member, Owen O’Mahony says.
It all started in Ennis on June 7, 1982 in one small room provided by Mrs Leyden, who lived at the rear of 91 O’Connell Street, next door to where Veritas is now situated. Facilities were extremely basic at the time, yet the service was effective and fulfilled a very important need. There was just one phone line for callers and one used solely for office administration. Toilet facilities were provided upstairs in the building, while Mrs Leyden was extremely good to the Samaritans providing tea for volunteers, particularly when they were on their own.
About 56 volunteers, who were trained by the Limerick branch, were taken on before another 30 came on board in the autumn. Officers from the Limerick branch had organised an open evening in the West County Hotel earlier that year, which resulted in 73 people completing training out of an attendance of about 200.
The training dealt with the importance of listening and provided practical work with role plays and lectures dealing with a wide variety of issues, including helping people who were expressing suicidal feelings, depression, financial problems and a host of family issues. Helping people who felt lonely and isolated in rural and urban areas were common problems that volunteers dealt with from the beginning.
Initially, it was proposed as an annex to the Limerick branch but no sooner had it opened, it quickly emerged there was a requirement for full branch status in Clare.
The volume of calls was low, averaging three or four a day, as a lot of people weren’t aware the new service existed. There was no national service at the time and most of the callers were from Clare. Night time calls were supposed to be transferred to the Limerick office. However, there was a technical problem with the equipment provided, which meant the Ennis branch provided a 24-hour service from its inception.
Money had to be raised from the start to pay for the day-to-day bills. Their first fundraising venture, which consisted of selling soup and sandwiches, provided by the Mercy Sisters until 3am in the morning during the Ennis Fleadh Cheol was hugely successful and raised £340 – a significant sum at the time.
In addition to raising badly-needed funds, it raised public awareness about the Samaritans and proved to be a great bonding session. Volunteers who completed a three-hour rota got to know each other during the exercise, as most of them were strangers to each other.
A group of volunteers also provided a letter-writing service to deal with letters, as telephones weren’t in every home at the time. This has now been replaced with an email service and the branch responds to about 20 emails weekly, which can come from the United States, Holland or the United Kingdom. The majority of emails involve people expressing suicidal feelings or tendencies. About 20% of the overall dialogue contacts involve people expressing suicidal feelings.
While the origin of the problem may involve a person in another country, a lot of the problems tend to be universal.
Owen explains feelings don’t change, regardless of the nationality. “We all have our own emotions, pain and sadness. It is not all that different in other countries,” he said.
With no Government funding or annual grants from any organisation, the Samaritans rely totally on donations and fundraising. From the beginning, Clare people were prepared to dig deep to support the Samaritans, even when money was scarce during the ’80s.
A 20-week fundraising draw, which involved people paying a £1 weekly, netted a whopping £20,000. Even people who were not involved as volunteers with the new service diligently collected £1 from between 10 and 20 willing participants and brought the proceeds into the office every Friday evening. Clubs and organisations in Ennis and its environs also organised various fundraising events.
There wasn’t enough space in O’Connell Street to provide a drop-in service so volunteers met people who needed assistance in pubs, in car parks or in people’s own homes, wherever it was convenient.
Owen admits he was a little apprehensive taking calls, particularly in the early days.
“None of us went into it saying we knew it all. Our service is not aimed at finding all the answers. It is helping people to talk about a problem, share their feelings and come to their own conclusions. This involves a thorough listening process.
“If people talk about and share their problems, hopefully they will come up with some way of dealing with it. When a person talks about their problems and shares it, it makes it easier and manageable. People are also encouraged to call back and discuss the problem again if they feel this would be useful,” he explains.
When he first became involved he was in his 40s and never envisaged he would “survive it so long” or that the Samaritans would survive him. He simply didn’t think that far ahead.
The satisfaction from knowing that every Samaritan has helped someone struggling to deal with a problem is a great motivating force. Callers often send Christmas cards or ring back to say thanks, which is appreciated.
“The problems we encountered back in the ’80s weren’t hugely different to the present day. People weren’t very well off in the ’80s and had financial problems. The difference now is that people experienced a period of apparent wealth during the Celtic Tiger and now that is gone.
“In the ’80s when things went down, they hadn’t so far to go down. There wasn’t any boom period as such. It was much more difficult to get a mortgage in the ’80s, which meant that people didn’t get an opportunity to get overburdened,” he says.
Looking at callers today, current director Gerry Dobbin finds people are struggling with mortgages, bills, loans and loss of employment. People took out loans when they had job security but that isn’t there any more. That would be reflected now in today’s calls, which is a bit different from the’80s.
“We always give people time, which was important in the fast-moving ’90s and today’s world. There were a lot more calls relating to substance and alcohol abuse involving young adults during the so-called Celtic Tiger when there seemed to be more money available to people.
“Our service is in demand more than ever. As long as people feel isolated, alone and depressed, our service will be needed. Our vision is that there would be a society where people would be able to more freely express their feelings and that fewer people would take their own lives,” he says.
Gerry stresses they are now reaping the rewards of the work completed by the founding volunteers, including Owen, and stressed they are extremely grateful to the contribution provided by former and current Samaritans.
He says they rarely know the final result of a call unless a caller calls back, which they are encouraged to do, particularly when they are dealing with a crisis. The Samaritans also provides a befriending service to a person until they feel they are ok to deal with their problems.
The importance of listening and offering a non-judgemental ear is vital for all callers, Gerry explains.
“When a person is in extreme mental or psychological pain, you can’t wear their shoes and say ‘I know how you feel’ or ‘it is going to get better’. You can’t use clichés and say ‘tomorrow is another day’.
“Going down to their level helps them. We don’t know who they are. We can’t stop people taking their own lives. We try to provide them with space and time to help. We never bring moral philosophy or invoke whatever god we believe in when we are dealing with calls. We are often seen at the last refuge.
“We never say to a person what about your family if you take a particular action because the pain is so blinkered and intense, the person isn’t thinking straight,” he says.
Owen explains talking to a person in extreme pain can help lift some weight off their shoulders that may result in them reconsidering taking an extreme action, such as suicide. He stresses it is better that a person express anger because if it is internalised, it can lead to depression.
“If a person can sort out the reason why they want to die and work on that, they may not want to die and may want to get away from whatever problem is too heavy at a particular time. I often compare it to looking down the end of a pipe. You can see the light and you want to get away from the darkness inside. By talking about this blackness, a person may be able to see there are other ways out.
“We direct people to other options. We say have you thought about this organisation, such as Pieta House, Clare Haven or the AA. We never say you have to go to this organisation,” he says.
The Clare Samaritans have predominantly more females than males and their age profile ranges from people in their late 20s up to those in their 70s.
One of the most significant developments was the purchase of the Samaritans’ current head office on the Kilrush Road for the sum of £22,500 in October 1983. The premises was practically derelict and boarded up at the time and required huge renovation work, most of which was completed by the Clare Samaritans. Walls had to be thoroughly washed and painted and second-hand carpet from the Old Ground Hotel covered most of the house.
In addition to providing a focal point that the Samaritans could now call their home, the new building facilitated the introduction of a drop-in service where people could call in and discuss their problems face-to-face with a Samaritan in private. It also accommodates meetings and training sessions and is more comfortable for volunteers, particularly those doing night shifts.
By 1989, the number of volunteers had grown to 150. A year later, the head office was extended and their name was changed to the Ennis and Clare Samaritans to make it appear even more available to people living outside the county town.
When the service went national in 1993, the Clare branch got calls from all parts of the country. There are 12 branches in the country and calls are distributed on a random basis.
Gerry recalls when the Samaritans opened its Dublin and Limerick offices, it was the first national service where people could easily access and talk about sexuality issues safely and in confidence.
“People who were gay and lesbian could talk to the Samaritans about their problems when they couldn’t talk to their own family. It would have been seen as shameful. People are now more open talking about sexuality issues,” he says.
Asked if Samaritans get verbally abused by a caller who may be intoxicated, Gerry insists people are entitled to be angry and are not angry with the volunteers.
“People own their own anger. They are angry with things in their own lives so we are open to helping them express that anger. If they start abusing us personally, we would ask them to think about this and ring back at a later stage.
“We are open to anger as a legitimate emotion, particularly those who feel isolated. When you are on your own and you are angry with whatever is wrong with your life and you have no-one to be angry or share it with, people are going to be angry,” he explains.
Head office provides regular training and the most up-to-date information on topics such as suicide and depression.

New signs to raise awareness

THE Samaritans is celebrating 30 years in operation in the Banner County and the local branch is taking steps to raise awareness of its work in the county.
New signs with Samaritans contact details are being installed at Doolin, Liscannor and at Clare’s premier tourist attraction, the Cliffs of Moher, which has been visited by over four million people in the last five years. Two of its recent high-profile visitors were Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping and Ireland soccer manager Giovanni Trapattoni.
It’s hoped that the signs will increase awareness of the Samaritans and will lead to an increased level of engagement with the service.
Its work will be acknowledged by Clare County Council on June 11, when a reception will be held at Áras Contae an Chláir in Ennis.
Director of the Clare branch, Gerry Dobbin has volunteered with the organisation for many years. He said the branch has invested in the new signs in an attempt to raise awareness among people who may be at risk.
“We feel it is important that we get our message out to the public and we are particularly grateful to the Cliffs of Moher for their assistance in this. The Samaritans vision is for a society where fewer people die by suicide.
“We offer a listening ear to people who are experiencing feelings of distress and despair and we are available 24/7. We can be contacted by phone at 1850 609090, by email at jo@samaritans.org or by visiting our centre on the Kilrush Road in Ennis between the hours of 10am and 10pm each day.”
It is estimated that between 15% and 20% of all calls made to the Samaritans are from people who have suicidal thoughts. The experience of the Clare branch has been replicated across the country, with a very noticeable increase in contacts to the service since the onset of recession.
Gerry said the Samaritans don’t offer those who make contact any advice but talk to them about their feelings and the issues facing them.
“It can be of great benefit for people to talk about what’s going on for them and by contacting the Samaritans they can talk about their problems. If they are feeling very low, or even suicidal they will get a chance to talk about that, an opportunity that people might not have otherwise.”