Tipperary hurler speaks poignantly about loss of brother

It was mental health week here in Ireland.

The good people at Mental Health Ireland have been in charge of running the week with the hopes of raising awareness for the topical issue of mental health in Ireland and TV3's Ireland AM also hopped on board with a number of interviews throughout the last few days to promote mental health week. On Friday, Galway hurler Conor Whelan appeared alongside Tipperary hurler Niall O'Meara on the show to speak about their personal experiences dealing with loss. O'Meara lost his brother to suicide when the hurler was just 11-years-old and spoke about his experience on the show:

"I actually remember it vividly enough, to be honest," O'Meara said. "I remember it was a Saturday night and it was around mid-term break, I’ll always remember that for that reason. So, we were off school and you could just hear noise downstairs. "Paul was 21 at the time and he’d just after come back after having a few drinks, you wouldn’t really be thinking much of it, I had a good relationship with him and never really though much into it really. "You just wouldn’t know, I was too young to know maybe. "Things happen, we were devastated and ended up moving house and different things like that because we were destroyed after it on a personal level."

Conor Whelan's cousin Niall O'Donoghue used to play for the Galway hurlers only to die suddenly four years ago and the 2017 Young Player of the Year nominee opened up about depression and how it impacts young people:

"Going back to my personal experience, before Niall I never knew what the word depression was," Whelan said "Do young people know what depression is? Do they understand if you’re not feeling well and if you’re down that it is perfectly fine?. "For me, I didn’t understand it until I had a personal tragedy. "You’re never going to forget but you just learn to live with it, as Niall said there’s a hole left there and it will never be filled and you learn how to adapt."

The 20-year-old had a flag to honour his cousin when the Tribesmen went on to lift the Liam McCarthy this year. You can watch the full interview below  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtrD_cDmASs