Domestic abuse soars at Christmas

THE level of domestic violence experienced by Irish women often soars amid the pressures of the festive season.

Women’s Aid, which fields an average of 70 calls a day from women seeking advice over domestic abuse, expects hundreds of calls from distraught people during the festive period.

Margaret Martin, director of Women’s Aid, said: “There are more opportunities because people are thrown together more, then added to that is that there is a lot of alcohol.

“We have a culture where people indulge in a lot of alcohol. Now, that doesn’t cause the violence but it certainly can accelerate it. The same with the emotional abuse, it is just like turning up the volume, putting the alcohol into the situation.”

Ms Martin said the helpline — 1800 341 900 — would expect an increase in calls from St Stephen’s Day onwards after a lull before Christmas amid preparations for the day.

“Abuse is usually not something that comes just at Christmas — it is something that has been going on – but certainly around Christmas the levels of stress go up and the abuse goes up. It is the fact there is more opportunity in a sense because families are thrown together more.

“Sometimes the way women protect themselves, they are trying to manage the abusive situation, so if their partner is out at work, that provides them with a certain level of protection when he is not around.

“Because he has a couple of days off, he might start drinking early in the day. We would be clear in saying not all men who drink are abusive, but for men who drink, it accelerates it and accentuates it.

“Last year, the Women’s Aid Helpline answered 25,843 calls but more than 10,000 were missed.

“We are really worried about that, about half of people who call us are first-time callers so out of the two out of five missed some of these are first-time calls,” she said. “We are worried some will have given up.”