Letters to the Editor: Activism in fight against gender-based violence

Kate and Henry Leahy, Ballinlough, at the walk and vigil for Ashling Murphy at the Atlantic pond, Pairc Ui Chaoimh, Cork, on Saturday. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

I was heart sore when I heard about Ashling Murphy. It stopped me in my tracks. My eldest daughter is much the same age. I can’t begin to imagine what her family are going through.

I cried at the Dáil vigil and even drove to Tullamore to leave flowers.

It is heartening to hear politicians describe this as a watershed moment but I’m sceptical, We’ve been here before, many times.

Three years ago, I joined a local group called ‘Dublin 15 and Dublin 7 Action Against Gender-based Violence’. We span both postcodes to reflect electoral boundaries. We’ve always believed male violence against women must be a political priority.

In 2019 we organised a campaign where 500 local people sent postcards to the offices of then Taoiseach and local TD Leo Varadkar. Each card represented a family turned away from a local refuge the previous year. We called for better funding, outreach supports, and a local rape-crisis centre.

In 2021 we held our first #walkwithwomen event — candle-light walks for those impacted by gender-based violence. And this is just a sample. We’ll keep going, keep shouting loudly, marching, remembering, and fighting for a different world even when the tragic event in Tullamore has fallen from news cycles.

The repeal movement taught us this is the sort of grassroots pressure that is needed if we are to force the hand of the political establishment.

Standing outside the Dáil, it was impossible not to draw comparisons with a similar outpouring for Savita Halappanavar. Savita’s tragic death was a turning point in the movement that repealed the eighth amendment. It led to a groundswell of local activism from below and I hope that the current response up and down the country might light a similar fire.

I’ve found huge support and solidarity from our Dublin 15/Dublin 7 group. I implore all of you to set up similar groups in your own communities, to disrupt, interrupt, shout loud and often, and be the change you want to see in the world.

Camilla Fitzsimons

Maynooth University

Politicisation of vigils for Ashling

I am very concerned at the politicisation, for whatever cause, of the tragic death of Ashling Murphy which has shocked our nation.

I welcome the mournful vigils that have occurred to show our communal solidarity and revulsion at Ashling’s murder in broad daylight on the banks of the Grand Canal in Tullamore.

I attended one such vigil and was appalled to see the vigil hijacked for a political purpose. For me a vigil should be for moments of collective, shared silent reflection and not a soap box for any cause.

A photograph of Ashling Murphy among flowers and candles at a make-shift shrine during a vigil in her memory at Leinster House, Dublin.

Using a vigil as a political protest opportunity is disgraceful, ill-judged, and completely disrespectful to the deceased and bereaved, particularly in these tragic circumstances.

By all means let Ashling’s passing be the catalyst (if her relatives agree) that brings us together to tackle all forms of violence in our society. Whilst our country is united in solidarity, repulsion and grief in wake of the horrific murder of Ashling, we also need to be mindful, careful, and sensitive not to politicise and objectivise Ashling’s terrible death.

Collective congregated silent reflective vigils are the right thing to do, but we also need to come together to absolutely abhor, condemn, call out, and show zero tolerance to all forms of violence towards all members of our society, in particular women and children and the vulnerable.

There is no freedom until all women and citizens are free from violence and abuse in all its heinous forms.

Paul Horan

Assistant Professor Schoolof Nursing and Midwifery

Trinity College Dublin

Point-scoring in a time of tragedy

All public representatives irrespective of their political persuasion should put an end to their circus and have a little respect for all concerned with this terrible tragedy.

They should stop trying to score points at the cost of respect and dignity for the deceased and her family.

Seamus Ward

Dundalk

Co Louth

Install CCTV to keep women safe

The brutal murder of Ashling Murphy has horrified most right thinking members of society. It has led to many vigils being held in solidarity to her memory but to what effect?

Hundreds gathered in Kinsale to hold a vigil and a walk in memory of Ashling Murphy. 

Vigils will not have any effect on those psychologically disturbed, cowardly men who harbour hatred in their hearts for all women and who act out their evil fantasies when the opportunity arises. Would Ashling’s memory not be better served if all local authorities were encouraged to install CCTV coverage of canals and other walkways within and around the towns over which they have responsibility? It might deter some of those attacks if the would-be perpetrators knew they were being observed.

Bobby Carty

Belmullet

Co Mayo

Domestic 999 calls cancelled by gardaí

I wonder if there is a correlation between gardaí cancelling 999 calls from victims of domestic violence and recent assaults and murders of young women. 

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It takes a lot of mental strength for a victim of domestic violence to finally call the gardaí to try to bring an end to their ordeal. Ignoring those calls only emboldens the perpetrator allowing them to continue the abuse.

Mark O’Hagan

Midleton

Co Cork

Misogynistic jokes just aren’t funny

There needs to be an understanding that from the perspective of a misogynistic person, a woman’s voice is worthless. When someone hates women, of course they’re not going to listen to them. Men need to understand that when ‘jokes’ are passed off, it causes so much more harm than they will ever realise: “He’s only joking”; “he’s never actually going to act on it”; “he doesn’t mean it.”

Floral tributes and candles are left after a vigil outside the London Irish Centre in Camden in memory of murdered primary school teacher 23-year-old Ashling Murphy.

Derogatory remarks and insults causes misogynists to influence and perpetrate. This leads into the subconscious minds of their family, friends, and community. A domino effect of what leads to violence.

It doesn’t matter that a murderer would not be in a sane state of mind, that’s not an excuse. The murderer’s subconsciousness or consciousness would be influenced and motivated by misogyny.

We need men to disrupt the ‘jokes’, it’s the only way to disrupt the domino effect that influences violence toward men and women.

Kate-Leigh Farrell

Co Mayo

Women must vote for women in Dáil

In relation to the Tullamore murder the National Women’s Council of Ireland director Orla O’Connor is quoted as saying: “It should go without saying that a woman should be able to go for a jog in broad daylight and return home safely.”

To make that objective more possible giving women more power in our democracy by electing more women to the Dáil is a basic reform which would enable women to influence decisions in the most powerful political forum in our democracy.

To do that, given that they are a majority in the electorate, all women have to do in the next election is vote for fellow women. That would change the existing reality in which men make up nearly 80% of Dáil representatives.

It would also give women a bigger say in the control of the resources of the state and make changing the situations in which women seem to be vulnerable easier to achieve.

Anthony Leavy

Sutton

Dublin 13