Irish Examiner view: Evil that men do lives on

Tullamore tragedy

Approximately 500 people gathered in Emmett Square, Clonakilty, last night to hold a vigil in memory of Ashling Murphy. Ms Murphy was found dead on Wednesday afternoon on the banks of the Grand Canal, Co Offaly. Picture: Andy Gibson.

The awful circumstances of the tragic death of Ashling Murphy on a stretch of canal bank in Tullamore, Co Offaly, are the subject of a murder investigation by An Garda Síochána and, as such, it would be imprudent to speculate about the circumstances and details.

Our columnist Louise O’Neill, wrote about “yet another woman who never comes home again ... we say their names aloud. Sarah Everard. Sabina Nessa. Ashling Murphy. And we wonder which one of us will be next.”

Justice Minister Helen McEntee has spoken, very strongly, of the case and juxtaposed it with the publication, “within a matter of weeks”, of a new national strategy on sexual and domestic violence.

Whatever the proposals, be they education and awareness-raising; or greater assistance and support for people at risk; or turning those who indulge in offensive or violent speech into pariahs; or new categories of crime carrying heavier punishments; or earlier intervention, they should be supported where they can be judged to be likely to make an impact. 

This strategy must come replete with ideas and solutions. It must articulate where funding will be pledged, it cannot be a document filled with gestures and promises. The core achievement of such actions will be that women can feel safe and it is by that yardstick that proposals should be judged. 

But it would be wrong to pretend that events such as this week can be eradicated and it is misleading for commentators to suggest that it is otherwise.

Most murders are committed by men and while most victims are male, murders of women are almost exclusively committed by men. Almost a year ago, Urantsetseg Tserendorj died after she was stabbed walking home in Dublin. A teenager will go trial for her murder later this year. 

The man who killed Sabina Nessa, also a primary school teacher, in Greenwich, London, last autumn, has accepted responsibility for her death but pleaded not guilty to murder. His case will come to trial this summer. 

The murderer of Sarah Everard, police officer Wayne Couzens, used his official status in exploiting lockdown rules to abduct, rape, and kill her.

Women’s Aid has found that, since 1996, the year Fiona Pender went missing in Tullamore, 244 women have been killed by men in Ireland. That is a disturbing number that needs to be reflected on. Though it is dispiriting, it is also true to say initiatives by gardaí would not have prevented all of those attacks from occurring.

Women are at risk from male power, an accompanying sense of entitlement, and institutional misogyny and that must be removed as a factor in everyone’s lives. 

But crimes in which women go out and do not come home again while devastating and abhorrent are, as Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said on Friday, rare.

Helen McEntee deployed a now underused, word in her description of the events of this week. She said it was “evil”. Some 40 years ago, while the Leeds serial killer Peter Sutcliffe was murdering 13 victims over a five-year period, the local police force instructed women to stay away from public spaces after dark. 

This led to a vociferous ‘Reclaim the Night’ campaign, whose members made counter suggestions that all men should be subject to curfew; that assailants should be chemically castrated, and that rapists should be executed. Views have moved some way since then. 

Although frustrations and rage are appropriate and entirely understandable, there is also such a thing as evil. And while it may be capable of containment, it will not be legislated away. We must all stand together against it, irrespective of gender.