Domestic Violence

The domestic violence crisis

Paul Gosling on December 4, 2023, 9:14 am

| Readers 2073

Women in Northern Ireland are twice as likely to be murdered as a result of domestic violence than in the other UK nations. In some years, almost half of Northern Ireland murders are connected to domestic violence. In the 2022/23 year, of 17 homicides there were eight that resulted from domestic violence against women. Northern Ireland is also an outlier in international terms. While Finland has the highest rate of femicide by a partner, Northern Ireland is joint second with …

Did peace make a difference to domestic violence?

Soapbox on September 20, 2018, 12:00 pm

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Last year, an incident of domestic violence was reported to the PSNI around every 18 minutes each day in Northern Ireland. In 1992, a previous study on domestic violence in Northern Ireland, led by Professor Monica McWilliams and Joan McKiernan highlighted the serious consequences of domestic violence for women and children during the Troubles particularly given the availability of guns at that time. It also showed how the conflict limited access to police thereby increasing the power and control of …

Paula Bradshaw: We need to talk about domestic violence

Soapbox on February 28, 2018, 11:48 am

| Readers 617

Alliance Party MLA, Paula Bradshaw writes for Slugger for the issue of domestic violence We need to talk about domestic violence. Specifically, we need to recognise that the failure to restore the Executive and Assembly is holding up efforts to protect women (and men) from domestic abuse, stalking, and coercive control. Judith Gillespie’s timely contribution to the debate reminds us that – regardless of the esteem in which our devolved institutions are held – they remain the forum to deliver …

Sinn Fein walks an excruciating line between McAuley the hero and McAuley the villain

Donal O'Keefe on December 7, 2015, 4:53 pm

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FORKED TONGUE: Mary-Lou McDonald is right about Ireland’s lenient sentencing regime, but Sinn Féin – having previously campaigned for his early release – has a breath-taking cheek to say Pearse McAuley deserves a longer sentence for failing to kill someone than the sentence he served for actually succeeding in killing someone.

Death in Cobh and Attack in Cavan

W[r]ite Noise on December 29, 2014, 4:02 pm

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A couple of days ago, Patricia McBride wrote on Slugger that “our political leaders north and south must become pro-woman” in light of the recent tribulations of Dawn Purvis, Director of Marie Stopes, as well as the judgement delivered by the High Court in Dublin last week regarding whether to continue life support for a pregnant woman described as clinically brain dead and, of course, the high profile case of Savita Halappanavar whose death was not prevented in an Irish …

#SOSVigil: Women’s refuges facing closure because they come at the end of a long funding chain?

Mick Fealty on November 21, 2014, 2:43 pm

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So the Taoiseach finally met with the Louise O’Keeffe yesterday. Yesterday was also the occasion of Women’s Aid #SOSVigil campaign protesting the cutting of funding to its network of women’s refuges. There were protests both outside 10 Downing Street and Leinster House at cuts in women’s refuges on both sides of the Irish Sea. Far from the often wilfully political complications around the Mairia Cahill case, Womens’ Hour on BBC Radio Four yesterday with Jenny Murray gave a useful overview of the …

In a cause and effect world interruption is key to violence prevention

Mick Fealty on December 15, 2011, 4:19 pm

| Readers 18

I was in Washington last week, speaking at a conference on the prevention of violence (you can still pick up some of the content on Twitter, if you put in the hashtag #mPreventViolence). It was organised by the US Institute of Medicine. I partnered up with John Pollock, who has been writing about the digital revolution that’s been driving revolt against dictatorships in countries across the Middle East. John spoke about the ways in which ordinary people co-operated both offensively …