Boxer Michael Conlan a champion for mental health and suicide prevention

Boxer Michael Conlan is known for his skill in the ring, but his most crucial fight revolves around battling suicide rates in Northern Ireland.

Michael Conlan (13-0, 7 KOs) returns to the ring on Tuesday, March 17, on St. Patrick’s Day. He’s fighting at Madison Square Garden for his fourth consecutive St. Patrick’s Day against Belmar Preciado (20-2-1, 13 KOs), but he’s been battling for mental health awareness and suicide prevention for Northern Ireland.

Born and raised in Belfast, Conlan witnessed some of the worst times in Northern Ireland’s history. He grew up as a child seeing the political disarray and physical violence produced by the Troubles. However, even after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, Northern Ireland still finds itself dealing with pain.

In January, Conlan sent a letter to Northern Ireland’s Health Minister, Robin Swann, calling for action in addressing mental health issues and treatment in Northern Ireland. The world is being threatened by the pandemic COVID-19 virus, but Northern Ireland is facing a suicide epidemic as well.

A December New York Times article brought attention to the fact that Northern Ireland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. It’s a fact that Conlan is all too familiar with.

“I have witnessed many people I’ve known, many friends that I’ve known, people in my area growing up, take their own life,” Conlan told FanSided. “Where I’m from in west Belfast, it has the highest suicide rate in Europe. Northern Ireland, in general, has a massive suicide rate.”

Three decades of violence in the streets of Northern Ireland known as the Troubles ended in 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement. Although political violence has ended, suicide rates have steadily increased.

“There’s 307 deaths per year on average by suicide,” stated Conlan. “There’s been more deaths in Northern Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement, more deaths by suicide than actually died as a direct result of the Troubles, which was a war.”

Conlan felt compelled to do something to help his country’s struggles after several young kids took their lives.

“At the start of the year, there was a string of young people, kids as young as 10,” said Conlan. “I have two young kids myself, and there were a lot of things that started to strike home.”

Conlan’s letter to Minister Swann asks for reasonable changes to be made to better combat suicide rates and people suffering from mental health issues. As well versed as Conlan is in the ring, he’s just as knowledgeable about the problems facing Northern Ireland and its people. He broke down several factors he believes are critical to Northern Ireland’s suicide rate.

One is that suicide is becoming normalized within the country, according to Conlan.

“One, I think it’s kind of been normalized,” said Conlan. “It seems like loads of people do it, and they have these big a** funerals and memorials and stuff, which I don’t agree with, unfortunately. I know people want to show love for the family member that’s gone, but let’s be honest, the person’s gone.

“I feel like that kind of normalizes, maybe glorifies it in some kind of way for the younger generation.”

Another issue that Conlan identified was the focus of the December New York Times article. The Troubles may be over, but the psychological damage remains. Conlan feels that trauma is being handed down from one generation to another.

“A contributing factor was the Troubles,” said Conlan. “There was a war basically for many years in the country of Northern Ireland. I think now leaking down in the families is a kind of PTSD kind of thing, post-traumatic stress from what’s happened.”

The final contributing element Conlan thinks is adding to suicide rates in Northern Ireland, is social media. From Conlan’s perspective, long ago, kids may have experienced bullying in school, but home served as a haven. Technology and social media today is so widespread that many children experience constant cyberbullying. Kids who fall victim to bullying have no sanctuary.

“Now kids go home, and they’re being bullied on the phone,” said Conlan. “They’re being bullied on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, everywhere. There’s so much accessibility to people now, and there’s no real private time or safe time. I think that plays a part too in the younger generation.

“[At] any age, people are seeing a false reality of life. Social media is a place where people paint the perfect picture of themselves. They never show they’re bad days.”

Mental health experts share Conlan’s point. In 2017, psychologist Jean M. Twenge wrote an article titled “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation” in The Atlantic, positing a link between social media, technology, and rising rates of depression amongst today’s generation of teens and young adults in the U.S.

“Psychologically, however, they are more vulnerable than Millennials were: Rates of teen depression and suicide have skyrocketed since 2011,” stated Twenge in 2017. “It’s not an exaggeration to describe iGen as being on the brink of the worst mental-health crisis in decades. Much of this deterioration can be traced to their phones.”

Having identified several vital reasons for Northern Ireland’s rising suicide rate, Conlan’s letter asked the government to better aid people suffering from depression and other mental health problems. Treatment response time is the primary area where the government is failing the people, according to Conlan.

“To get help in Northern Ireland, if you went into the hospital and said, ‘listen, I want to kill myself,’ they’ll send you away, and you’ll not be seen for seven months,” explained Conlan. “Seven months is the waiting time. Seven months is a dead person walking.

“I know it was 28 days in the letter, but I want it to be as short as one day. I still think 28 days is too long, but it’s much better than seven months, much more realistic than seven months.”

Conlan hasn’t received a response from Minister Swann. Northern Ireland’s government has addressed nothing in Conlan’s letter, but he’s not giving up. Conlan is a boxer by trade, which means he’s a warrior through and through.

“It [suicide] is an epidemic,” declared Conlan. “I’m trying to get the Health Minister to declare a state of emergency, which he still hasn’t answered, but I will be as persistent as ever. I will keep going and keep banging that door and keep calling his name until he makes these changes that I’ve asked for.”

Conlan returns to the ring on Tuesday, March 17. You can watch Conlan vs. Preciado on ESPN+ starting at 8 p.m. ET. The undercard will begin on ESPN+ at 5 p.m ET.