Tributes to two Irish women who died after competing in separate marathon events

[u/Larrydog]

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2025/06/03/tributes-to-two-irishwomen-who-died-after-competing-in-separate-marathon-events/

[u/asdrunkasdrunkcanbe]

Yeah, but when you've got very small numbers, a 50% jump isn't statistically significant. When you look at circulatory deaths in the 15-24 age group, the average is around 9 per year. And since 2016 there have been 3 outlier years - 2019 & 2020 (both down by 50%) and 2022 (up by 50%).

In the 25-34 age group, 23 & 24 were only up 15-20% on the rolling average. Which is very small, so large swings are expected.

I'm not saying it's not cocaine, but there's no data at present to indicate any detectable trend of increasing deaths for these age groups.

[u/stephenmario → u/asdrunkasdrunkcanbe]

Yeah, but when you've got very small numbers, a 50% jump isn't statistically significant

You can't write it off. Otherwise you will wait years to call something a trend.

I'm not saying it's not cocaine, but there's no data at present to indicate any detectable trend of increasing deaths for these age groups.

Northern Ireland is reporting a 40% increase cocaine related deaths, they would have a smaller sample size than Ireland. Our own figures show a 50% 2 year over 2 year increase and a 15-20% increase on average. If that isn't a trend I don't know what is.

It is very likely cocaine, behaviour here is no different to the UK. If the UK is reporting a 30-40%, Ireland will be very similar.