Suicidal behaviour, including deliberate self harm and suicide, is a major public health problem worldwide. Prevention of suicidal behaviour is difficult. In particular prevention of suicide poses a major challenge given the relative rarity of the event. There is evidence that for a significant proportion of people who die by suicide, the event represents the culmination of a lengthy suicidal process. This has been described as a series of pathways whereby individuals experience negative life events, often at an early age, which increase their vulnerability to external stressors, leading to thoughts of suicide and/or wishing they were dead.Threats and/or plans of suicide may follow, which in some cases progress to acts of deliberate self harm and suicide. While there are some empirical data supporting the suicidal process numerous studies have found evidence of an association between childhood adversity and later mental health problems including suicidal behaviour. However, the magnitude of the effects and the relative importance of different forms of childhood adversity on suicidal ideation is not well defined, particularly in the Irish context.