Selective approach to domestic violence

IN my letter (Irish Examiner, October 30), I questioned why your columnist Fergus Finlay (Irish Examiner, October 24) had omitted male victims of domestic violence.

Mary Cleary of Amen (Irish Examiner letters, November 3) also challenged him on this issue. Mr Finlay did not reply, but instead followed up with more of the same in his column of November 28, once again making no reference to men who suffer domestic violence.

He did, however, call on Finance Minister Brian Cowen to give an extra €750,000 to Women’s Aid in the budget. This is despite the fact that the ‘domestic violence against women’ sector is already awash with millions of euro of taxpayers’ money while male victims receive only a pittance.

Perhaps Mr Finlay’s omission in his column of October 24 could be dismissed as an oversight. However, there is no excuse for repeating the error one month later, given the copious information on male victims supplied by the Irish Examiner in the interim.

During this time, you published the letters from Mary Cleary and myself, while your November 24 edition devoted almost an entire page to dealing with domestic violence against men.

In your three-part special series on domestic violence in general, you included an article written by Mary Cleary headlined ‘Male victims: domestic violence is not about gender’.

Nevertheless, even though he had been challenged twice on the issue and was now fully informed, Mr Finlay still didn’t mention male victims in his November 28 column.

He says children can be affected by witnessing domestic violence, but by dismissing male victims he is also ignoring the children in these households.

It is inconsistent of Mr Finlay, who is the Barnardos chief executive, to express selective concern about the welfare of one group of children, while passing over others who find themselves in similar circumstances.

Patrick McGinnity

Derrynoose

Keady

Co Armagh