On a windswept hill in Orkney, the Lady of Hoy lies in her bleak, narrow bed. Hers is the most visited grave in the whole of the northern isles. People are drawn to it by her melancholy story, and the injustice of it.
Betty Corrigall lived at Greengairs Cottage in Hoy in the late 1770s. At the age of 27, she was courted by a sailor. She became pregnant. When he heard the news, her lover was last seen on a boat heading far away from Orkney. Shamed and taunted, she could see only one way out of her misery - suicide. She walked into the sea, but was rescued by some locals. A few days later, she hanged herself.
Suicide was a crime in "the good old days", as well as a sin in the eyes of the church. Betty Corrigall's desperate act meant that she could not be given a Christian burial. She was denied a resting place in the kirkyard, and the righteous lairds of Melsetter and Hoy refused to have her body on their ground. Her final, unconsecrated resting place was an unmarked, isolated grave on the parish boundary.
She lay there forgotten until 1933, when two men out cutting peat for fuel uncovered the corner of her wooden coffin. Thinking the box might hold treasure, they opened it. What they discovered was the peat-preserved body of a young woman, her long dark hair curling about her shoulders. The noose was beside her. The procurator fiscal ordered that the body be reburied in the same spot.
The story doesn't end there. During the second world war, thousands of troops were based on Hoy, with its port of Lyness serving as a major naval base for Scapa Flow. In 1941, soldiers came across the unmarked grave. Christening its occupant "The Lady of Hoy", they covered the grave over again. In order to forestall morbidly curious soldiers, a concrete slab was placed over her resting place. On a visit to Hoy in 1949, an American minister named Kenwood Bryant - blessed be his name - erected a wooden cross on the grave. In 1976, a small fibreglass headstone bearing the simple words "Betty Corrigall" was placed on the grave, and a quiet burial service was performed.
Attitudes to pregnancy outside wedlock have changed, as has the church's stance on suicide. Much more is known about the psychological states that lead people to such desperate measures. But it is still a taboo subject, whispered about rather than discussed openly.
Today is the beginning of Suicide Prevention Week. The Scottish launch will take place this morning at 10.15am in George Square, Glasgow. Here are some facts which may surprise you, simply because they are not talked about. Scotland has the highest suicide rate in the UK. More people in Scotland die by their own hand than are killed on the roads. In Scotland, in 2005, there were 763 deaths by intentional self-harm - more than twice the number of those killed in road accidents. It's one of the main causes of death among young people today. The risk of suicide in the most deprived areas of Scotland is almost double the Scottish average. And the rate for males is nearly three times that for females.
It's time to end the conspiracy of silence about suicide. It serves no one. The need to change public attitudes is clamant, for the simple reason that the taboo is killing individuals and devastating families. Most people contemplating suicide don't want to die, they simply want an end to the unbearable pain in their lives. If such feelings are regarded as shameful, then people in emotional and mental pain are unable to reach out for help. Three out of four deaths by intentional self-harm are completed by people who have not been in contact with mental health services in the previous year.
It's a myth to think that talking about suicide actually increases the risk. It doesn't. It's been proven that serious talk about suicide actually reduces it. The best way to identify the possibility of suicide is to ask directly. Open talk and genuine concern about someone's thoughts of self-harm are often the key elements in alleviating the immediate danger of suicide.
There are resources available for people who have to deal with possible suicide. The Scottish government's programme Choose Life (www.chooselife.net) has good materials, as has the Living Works organisation (www.
livingworks.net). The latter organisation has developed a training programme to help people respond to those at risk.
Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy - whatever the person's age. The guilt and sense of wreckage among families leave wounds which sometimes never heal.
Talking and listening save lives. Let the voice of the Lady of Hoy speak to Scotland eloquently down the generations.
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