Living in Northern Ireland has become perilous for females with four femicides occurring in merely the last month and a half. This is made evident by current figures disclosed by Northern Ireland’s Police Service which detail 31 women being killed over the previous five years in the region. Mary Ward is sadly the most recent femicide victim.
A month earlier, the Stormont Executive initiated a urgently needed strategy to combat violence suffered by women and girls, two years subsequent to the Irish Government’s announcement of a €363 million initiative designed to address domestic, sexual and gender-related violence. Alongside this, a dedicated seven-year action plan from the Police Service of Northern Ireland targeting violence against women is now in its second year. With the new laws around non-fatal strangulation, stalking and domestic abuse, over 3,000 arrests have been realised in the past two years.
Initiatives have been met with approval by advocacy groups like Women’s Aid that petitioned for a Stormont strategy four years ago. However, there’s growing unease over what has been labelled an “epidemic” of gender-related violence in Northern Ireland. The statistics are disturbing given that 26 years have passed since the Belfast Agreement, and the region is supposedly in peacetime.
According to Dr. Katrina McLaughlin, a senior lecturer in Psychology specialising in marginalised and at-risk groups at Queen’s University Belfast, there’s no single factor to indict. Potential risk influences tied to violent acts against partners include familial factors like domestic violence within their own homes and personal history of abuse during childhood.
Psychological factors such as antisocial behaviour, substance and alcohol misuse are also determinants. But more widespread misogyny and disdain for women are increasingly characterising Northern Ireland’s society, according to Dr. McLaughlin.
Regrettably, a significant amount of this is becoming apparent. A new strategy is emerging, however, there is a considerable amount of work yet needed, commented an unnamed source. Kelly Andrews, who is the CEO of Women’s Aid in Belfast and Lisburn, concurs that the tumultuous history of Northern Ireland plays a vital role in discussing the killing of women.
Andrews states that their historically conservative and male-dominated society is a direct result of living in a society that has experienced conflict and intergenerational trauma. “Despite the introduction of new procedures and strategies at both a governmental and statutory level, the wider issue at hand is society’s perception of women and the inescapable misogyny that accompanies this perception,” she adds.
The Stormont Executive’s draft programme for government gauges that paramilitaries are costing the economy approximately £750 million or €896 million per annum. This is an ongoing issue, with the additional problem of women feeling hesitant to engage with the police or social services due to fear of retribution from their abusers, particularly if they belong to a paramilitary group.
“These women have to grapple with this added dilemma,” Andrews stresses. “Let’s not sanitise it by calling it paramilitarism, in truth, they are organised crime syndicates masquerading as paramilitaries,” she adds.
According to Andrews, establishing an educational foundation, beginning at primary school level, is key to addressing these societal issues. Nevertheless, she cautions that it will likely take a generation to effect meaningful change.