Introduction: Emile Durkheim differentiated between two types of wars: National and Civil Wars in terms of effect
on suicide mortality. This study investigates Durkheim’s assertion by examining the effect of Irish Civil War on the
1882-1928 suicide rates trend.
Method: The study is based on vital statistics data sourced from Central Statistics Office of Ireland. We used AutoRegressive Integrated Moving Average with Explanatory variables (ARIMAX) design adopting Bayesian approach.
Results: The Standardized Mortality Rate SMR for death by suicide for the total Irish population during the civil war
period were reduced by 0.041417 (95% Credible Interval CI: -0.2421749 to 0.15934012). The SMR for death
by suicide for the total Irish population during the First World War period were reduced by 0.206202 (95% CI:
-0.3776463 to -0.03475746).
Conclusion: Evidence from this study support a significant drop in terms of the intensity of suicidal behaviour in the
Irish population during World War I more so than during the Irish Civil War.
Ireland ->
Maynooth University ->
Type = Article
Ireland ->
Maynooth University ->
Academic Unit = Faculty of Science and Engineering: Research Institutes: Hamilton Institute
Ireland ->
Maynooth University ->
Status = Published
Ireland ->
Maynooth University ->
Academic Unit = Faculty of Science and Engineering: Mathematics and Statistics
MacDara McCauley,
Andrew Parnell,
Mugtaba Osman