In the aftermath of the horrifying murder of Ashling Murphy, the country is reeling and demanding change. Not since the assassination of Veronica Guerin or the death of Savita Halappanavar has there been such a collective outpouring of grief over a woman’s death in this country.
Both of those awful deaths prompted huge policy changes at a governmental level. Within a week of Guerin’s murder two pieces of legislation were enacted, the Proceeds of Crime Act and the Criminal Assets Bureau Act, which led to the formation of CAB.
Halappanavar’s death became a tragic catalyst for a reinvigorated reproductive rights movement determined to end the torment of women stripped of their bodily autonomy under the Irish Constitution. It culminated in a referendum to repeal the Eighth Amendment, and was preceded by the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act.
We either want to use every single tool at our disposal to address violence against women or we don’t. Nobody is going to argue against more funding and resources to do so. In the meantime, of course, individuals will try to make a difference. That change is in train.
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I believe that one of the reasons the public’s reaction to this awful tragedy has been so seismic is because our attitudes towards how women are treated in this country have changed so much in recent years. The architecture of misogyny that limited women’s freedoms is being dismantled. And yet violence against women persists.
It takes guts to reflect. It takes courage to change. It takes bravery to act
I understand why women frame attitudes, culture and violence as connected, whereas a lot of men insist that violence against women is a string of unique, unrelated, individual “random” acts. But to decide that a collective experience doesn’t exist when it clearly does is delusional. It’s also a handy story to tell yourself because it means you don’t have to do anything.
When a man says that he doesn’t commit acts of violence against women, well, I think we should believe him. But what about the next thought in that process: what is he actively doing to tackle it? Exonerating yourself changes nothing.
Courage
The same goes for the State. It takes guts to reflect. It takes courage to change. It takes bravery to act. So let’s see it, not just from individuals, but from government.
Yes, we will have the conversations, we will hold the vigils, we will open up about our experiences of violence in the hope that it conjures empathy, but we are not in charge of policy, funding, State resources, laws or commissioning national reports.
The consciousness around misogyny in Ireland has been raised tremendously over the past decade. Both homophobia and denying women’s reproductive rights are rooted in misogyny. The resonance of the referendum era continues to vibrate through the discourse around the National Maternity Hospital, the Mother and Baby Homes report, the sexual harassment of women, the online abuse of women, and violence against women.
Women want real equality, and the root of that is the very basic right to safety.
There have been persistent calls for an updated Sexual Abuse and Violence in Ireland (SAVI) report following its initial publication in 2002.
Policy decisions must be informed by proper research and data. Various politicians have split hairs over this. Leo Varadkar has said that funding a new SAVI report was dropped in favour of “providing free legal aid for people who are victims of domestic violence”. This is nonsensical. How on earth did addressing violence against women come down to a pick-and-choose approach? Who decided that the women of Ireland could either have legal aid or research?
Four departments
This false framing was repeated every time a woman politician – Ruth Coppinger, Róisín Shortall, Mary Lou McDonald, Catherine Connolly among others – called for an updated SAVI report.
The cost was €1 million, something so astronomical that when Charlie Flanagan was minister for justice he said that the funding would have to be spread across four departments. Flanagan subsequently announced a drawn-out national survey process to be undertaken by the Central Statistics Office, funded by just €150,000 in 2019, and one which would take five years. I think we can all agree that this approach lacks funding, resources and urgency.
Violence against women is a huge issue. Sometimes it can feel too big
In 2017, in lieu of a new SAVI report, Varadkar pointed to the European and Garda statistics that were available. I’m afraid we cannot assume Garda statistics are reliable. The Garda does not have a full and honest picture of violence against women in the home because it is ignoring and closing off cases by the thousand.
A recent Garda investigation found that in 2019 and 2020 between 3,000 and 4,000 “domestic violence” 999 calls were cancelled by the Garda. “Cancelled” calls can range from 999 calls receiving no response at all, to gardaí calling to the home where the attack was taking place and subsequently botching the recording process of the incident and classifying the call as “cancelled”.
In some cases gardaí did not undertake correct procedures when they did respond to calls, such as not following up in subsequent days. This is a scandal.
Violence against women is a huge issue. Sometimes it can feel too big. And the breadth of women’s horrible experiences due to misogyny and sexism is unfortunately broad and diverse.
Only cowards shirk from responsibility, so let’s be a country that steps up. You can’t solve everything at once, but everyone at once can solve something.