Sir, – Fintan O'Toole's first sentence, "Violence against women barely exists" inhis article headlined "Men need to be shocked by violence against women" (Opinion, March 16th) sadly highlights the denial of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence that continues to be a huge problem in all our communities.
He goes on to give us the shocking Garda data of the escalation of calls relating to domestic abuse from 600 to 800 a week during 2020 and how 225 women and 32 children were murdered in Ireland in the 32 years before 2019.
In 1979 there was a Reclaim the Night Protest when more than 5,000, mainly women, marched in Dublin after the horrific gang rape of a 16-year-girl in a Dublin street and 42 years on we are witnessing similar demonstrations in London and other parts of the world after the horrific murder of Sarah Everard.
We do not want any more shocks or denial of these crimes.
What we now need is that violence against women is kept on the agenda.
We want action from governments and civil society who must work together and hold each other to account to seriously tackle this problem and ensure that all the necessary services, statutory and frontline services, are properly resourced to do so.
– Yours, etc,
ELLEN O’MALLEY DUNLOP,
Adjunct Professor,
University of Limerick.
Sir, – Fintan O’Toole makes some interesting points about violence against women and the response of the media.
However when discussing the appalling murder of Sarah Everard in London we must also ensure we have a broader debate about victims.
Gangland murders do provide sensationalist copy but there are also rarely vigils or widespread expressions of regret and concern for the young men who have been murdered.
According to the Central Statistics Office, in 2019 the majority of murder and assault victims were male (82 per cent) and (59 per cent) respectively; 40 men were murdered, and nine women. Women were overwhelmingly the victims of sexual assault at 81 per cent.
There is most definitely a problem with “toxic masculinity” but the grim reality is that men are most often the victims of it. Men need to be shocked by violence against women but also the violence directed against their own gender. – Yours, etc,
KARL DOYLE
Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.