Liam O'Neill believes GAA coaches and school teachers have a key role to play in helping to ensure that young boys don't feel alone or have suicidal ideation when they reach adulthood.

Speaking to the Clare Champion after he addressed a Gaelic Games Made Easy course in Barefield National School, Co. Clare this week, the GAA president and primary school principal said boys need to be treated sensitively when playing hurling and football.

"I was talking to the teachers in terms of attempts now being made to help young adults to express their feelings and to avoid people thinking that they're alone if they have any difficulty," he revealed.

"We're working very closely with the Samaritans, with Pieta House and with any group who would help in a situation where people find themselves in difficulty.

"Young boys aren't taught the language of emotion early enough. When I was a child, if you got a belt you were told 'big boys don't cry'. The message there is that you don't express your feelings and you don't show weakness.

"It's becoming increasingly obvious, to me anyway, that when you see boys and girls playing at U6 and U8 level, when a boy or a girl gets a belt of a hurley, a football or a kick, it hurts a boy every bit as much as a girl, but we don't allow boys to express that.

"I think that if we taught boys the language needed to express their emotions, I think we could do a huge amount to unlock the difficulties that lead, in later life, to people feeling that they are on their own and who can't express themselves. They can't say 'hey, I'm in trouble here, I need help'."

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