A TD spoke about his suicide attempt on last night’s Late Late

Government TD Kevin 'Boxer' Moran spoke frankly about surviving a suicide attempt on last night's Late Late Show.

The Independent Alliance TD for Longford Westmeath told host Ryan Tubridy that he went through a dark time in his twenties after he lost his younger brother in a motorbike accident. He had started his own taxi business when he began to struggle.

"I was dealing with a lot of problems," he said. "I was just married, I had a mortgage, we had a couple of crashes one after the other – I have to say I was in two of them myself - and problems started to really erupt inside me and these panic attacks started to develop."

He said he was on the way home from a clay pigeon shoot one afternoon when he took a detour.

"I headed for home as I normally would, go left to go to my own house, but this particular day I went right." "The pressure was so severe inside me that I had a loaded gun and I was there and I said all sorts of thoughts going through your head, but then it was a blackout. "When I hear so many people that are affected through suicide… it was facing me on that particular day and I did pull the trigger. "But whatever, my brother above, whoever, I pushed away the gun."

The bullet shot through the roof of the van he was in but he survived. Shortly after the suicide attempt, he confided in his wife and sought help from their GP. He also said that there is a lot more support for people suffering with mental health difficulties available now. "We look at suicide and we have this habit of, when it happens we look back and say ‘did I see a sign?’ We’re like a detective. "I say to people, reach out to your best friend. If you see something, talk to them. Don’t be afraid. There’s help out there, there’s helpout there for everything nowadays that wasn’t there at that time." Commenters on Twitter were quick to praise the TD for his sincerity. https://twitter.com/bobhughesnews/status/865679428696670208 https://twitter.com/linfar4563/status/865680065610129408 https://twitter.com/mrdavidflane/status/865680725445574657 https://twitter.com/GerryFoleyTV/status/865699539826749444 https://twitter.com/rachwritesstuff/status/865679028904185856 You can watch the interview here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCKvH7iLnX8&feature=youtu.be