Domestic Violence in Ireland Today
“… one in five Irish women who have ever been in a relationship experience physical, emotional, financial or sexual abuse.” (Margaret Martin, Director Women’s Aid)
The recent launch of the annual statistics report for 2010 by Women’s Aid on domestic violence serves once more to highlight the continuing abuse inflicted on so many women in Ireland by their partners.
The prevalence of domestic abuse has been well documented both internationally and in Ireland. Research undertaken by Women’s Aid in Ireland found that 95% of young women and 84% of young men claimed to know someone who had experienced abuse. This abuse ranged from violence and harassment to being followed, forced to have sex or being struck by a boyfriend. In most instances, the victims were women. Shockingly, 1 in 4 young women knew someone who had been forced to have sex.
These Irish figures were recently corroborated by the studies in England which showed that many young girls experience a significant level of abuse, verbal intimidation and misogyny in their schools. According to the UK Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, the threat of sexual assault, stalking and domestic abuse is greatest for women between the ages of 16 and 19. As Starmer warns, this situation risks creating a “whole new generation of domestic violence.”
When domestic violence occurs, the situation is often made worse for the victims by a feeling of having to face this abuse alone, as they are unaware as to where they might get help. This sense of isolation can be further aggravated by jeering partners who mock them by telling them that there is no point their confiding in anyone, as they would not be believed anyway. According to Women’s Aid, one third of women never relate their experiences to anyone and try to survive - as well as protecting their children in many instances - as best they can on their own.
“Living outside the Law”
Women’s Aid’s statistics for 2010 showed that 13% of callers had suffered abuse at the hands of their current non-married partners. This is a serious concern, given the current legal situation, as a large number of these women will not be able to access Domestic Violence Orders if, for example, they have never lived with their partner, even if they have a child in common. A further 10% had been subjected to abuse from a former non-married partner and once again many of these women might find themselves ineligible for protection under the Domestic Violence Act 1996.
For many women, the termination of their relationship is no deterrent to their abuser. Roughly one fifth of women continue to suffer abuse, be stalked and harassed by their ex-partner. In many instances, women are hounded by their former partners who frequently avail of mobile phones to send them explicit texts and calls threatening to assault or even murder them. Social networking sites are also being used to an ever greater extent in a similar manner.
Many women can also find themselves increasing the risk of further violence and abuse when they turn to the legal system for protection. If the woman’s application for a Safety and Protection Order is refused, she may well find herself placed at increased risk of abuse from her abusive partner. Even when they are granted, these orders might result in aggravating her risk if the abuser decides to ignore the order or because he has been infuriated by her action. Indeed, even when an order is granted, the woman might have to continue living with the abuser.
In effect, Ireland has failed to live up to the guidelines issued by the UN on domestic legislation, through its failure to provide adequate protection for the victims of domestic abuse resulting from an intimate relationship, irrespective of their particular relationship and/or marital status.
Despite commitments on the part of the previous Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, to improve the legislation the only pre-election improvement was the extension of eligibility to same sex civil partners, now treated as spouses. The Programme for the current Government does include a commitment to ‘introduce consolidated and reformed domestic violence legislation to address all aspects of domestic violence, threatened violence and intimidation in a manner that provides protection to victims’. In this respect, the Civil Law Miscellaneous Bill tabled by Minister Alan Shatter, which has a provision to extend the Domestic Violence Act 1996 to give legal protection - access to protective orders - to women with a child in common with their abuser who do not meet the cohabitation requirements, is a step in the right direction.
Early Signs
“Over 51% of the 166 women murdered in the Republic were killed by their partner or ex-partner. More chilling data from resolved homicide cases show that of the 39 women aged between 18 and 25 years who were killed since 1996, 53% were murdered by a boyfriend or former boyfriend.” (Margaret Martin)
In order to prevent such horrific outcomes, it is critical that the initial warning signs of domestic violence are recognised and tackled. As the 2005 National Crime Council 2005 report - Domestic Abuse of Women and Men - revealed, in almost two-thirds of reviewed cases, abuse had commenced before the relationship was two years old. A national survey on domestic violence showed that nearly 60% of the victims of severe abuse in intimate relationships had experienced it for the first time before they were 25.
Many older women who have suffered from domestic violence reported that there were early warning signs at the start of their relationships but that they were just put down - both by herself and friends - as emanating from their partner just being a bit too much into her. In order to help younger women, who are at risk, identify these warning signs and take appropriate preventative actions, Women’s Aid launched the 2in2u National Public Awareness Campaign on Valentine’s Day this year.
This groundbreaking campaign, made possible by funding received through COSC (the National Office for the Prevention of Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence and supported by the Irish actress Charlene McKenna, aims at highlighting the issue of violence and abuse many young women experience in their dating relationships. This campaign was made possible by funding through Cosc.
In addition to highlighting how a controlling boyfriend’s attention can often be overwhelming at the early stages of a relationship and how it feels to be a young woman experiencing such behaviour, the 2in2u campaign is intended to help overcome the common view that abuse is the preserve of older and more established relationships, where women may have been married or living with their partner for a considerable period of time or with whom they might also have had children.
The 2in2u website also has a ‘relationship health check’ quiz that can help provide certain indicators as to the potential risk of domestic violence faced by women in relationships. Should a young woman feel uncomfortable or concerned about any aspect of her relationship with her boyfriend, she can call the Women’s Aid National Freephone Helpline (1800 341 900) or hopefully will feel encouraged to confide in someone she trusts.
For further information on the above, refer to http://www.womensaid.ie/.
Discussion
We welcome and encourage lively discussion from the public about articles on Irish Left Review. You can leave a comment using the form at the bottom of the page. Please read through the existing comments before posting your own.
This article is also being discussed on the following websites:
Leave a Comment
Sins of the Father
Subscribe by Email
Best of the Web
EU Should Admit Greece is Bankrupt | Christian Rickens
The unvarnished truth - the second Greek Bailout should not have happened.
The mistake isn’t the size, but the construction of the bailout package. It isn’t geared to the requirements of the people of Greece but to the needs of the international financial markets, meaning the banks.
How else can one explain the fact that around a quarter of the package won’t even arrive in Athens but will flow directly to the country’s international creditors? The holders of Greek government bonds are to get some €30 billion as an incentive to convert their old paper into new bonds. The aim is to keep alive the illusion that Greece isn’t bankrupt — after all, the creditors are voluntarily forgiving part of the debt. The financial sector is cleverly manipulating the fear that a Greek bankruptcy would trigger a fatal chain reaction.
That leaves €100 billion. But that too isn’t geared to what Greece needs in order to get back on its feet. It’s linked to an estimate of how much debt the Greek economy can bear without collapsing. International technocrats agree that with debts amounting to 120 percent of gross domestic product, the country can just about go on servicing its debt. That’s the level at which the cow can go on supplying milk without dying of exhaustion. So 120 percent became the goal.
Collaboration, with our European partners | Cunning Hired Knaves
The European project was supposed to be a bulwark against the dangers of fascist ambition, but now it is the instrument used to dismantle European democracy in the interest of the risk adverse looking for a steady income stream from the provision of the social net by those who cite the words and actions of old fascists while doing so.
The post Collaboration, with our European partners by Richard of Cunning Hired Knaves summed up in one sentence. For much better sentences and many more urgent points read the post.
On Sunday there were massive demonstrations throughout the Spanish state, with half a million people on the streets of Madrid and 450,000 in Barcelona, protesting against the labour ‘reform’ planned by the Partido Popular, the right-wing party that most closely represents the interests of the power elites that conserved their position when the transition from dictatorship to democracy was undertaken.
S.P.A.R.K. protest at cuts to lone parents, Dublin 18th February 2012
Many families were cut in the last budget but lone parent families were particularly hit by the Fine Gael/Labour Party government.
The key elements are that single parents can’t take advantage of training such as Community Employment (CE) Schemes and when the youngest child turns 7 years old, the parent is declassed as a lone parent but treated as an ordinary worker even though there are few affordable creche places. There is a bill coming up in March which will copper fasten some of the worst elements of government plans.
There is particular anger directed at the Labour Party because they are associated with women’s rights and a more progressive society.
Please share the link to this video
Exiting the euro | Michael Roberts
Michael Roberts argues that those in Greece who cite the example of Argentina when suggesting that Greece should leave the Euro are not necessarily looking at the whole picture. The situations are not the same, Roberts points out, citing Argentina’s former central bank governor at the time, Mario Blejer and his recent piece in the Financial Times. He also points to research based on the the experience of five recent devaluations of economies in crisis (including that of Argentina) which “shows that they lead to a 10-20% fall in real GDP and take five to ten years to recover to previous real GDP levels. But that is not to say that there is no alternative to “lowering wages, privatising the state sector, reducing taxes for the corporate sector (especially big business) and ‘deregulating’ labour markets i.e. the super-exploitation of the Greek people to raise profitability.”
But the left could also find an alternative policy to exiting the euro where Greece negotiates a full default on its debt to private and foreign bondholders; takes over the banks; and uses the savings from bond and interest repayments (€17-20bn a year) to start state directed investment in jobs, technology and funding small businesses, while staying in the euro to protect the savings of the people from destruction, keeping down inflation and avoiding a rise in foreign debt. The question of exiting the euro then becomes an issue for the Euro leaders to impose (and to be resisted by a campaign within Europe), not as the main policy plank of the left.
Corporate tax avoidance: where are the worst offenders?
This table comes via the Tax Justice Network (and Richard Murphy). It’s from a table produced by U.S. researcher Kimberly Clausing and as TJN notes “demonstrates which countries are working hardest to wage economic warfare on the United States (and, by extension, on other countries,) via the global tax system”.
Solidarity campaign to support the people of Greece
Mikis Theodorakis, famous Greek composer of Zorba’s Dance, and Manolis Glezos, veteran resistance fighter against the Nazi occupation, have issued a call for a European Front to defend the people of Greece and all those facing austerity. We have decided to support this call and work with trade unions, campaigns and parties across Europe to establish a European Solidarity Campaign to defend the people of Greece. We will organise solidarity and raise practical support for the people of Greece; they cannot be made to pay for a crisis for which they are not responsible.
Chris Dillow | Capitalism against freedom
[...]
During the Cold War, opponents of communism routinely, and not entirely wrongly, claimed to be champions of liberty. Freedom for capitalists and freedom of speech and thought go together, it was claimed. “Freedom is indivisible” wrote Bruce Winton Knight in 1952. “Economic freedom is…an indispensable means toward the achievement of political freedom“ wrote Milton Friedman in Capitalism and Freedom. And back in 1944 Friedrich Hayek complained that “We have progressively abandoned that freedom in economic affairs without which personal and political freedom has never existed in the past.”
Today, though, this seems wrong. Many threats to freedom come from capitalists. The story is no longer capitalism and freedom, but capitalism against freedom.
Ian Stewart | The mathematical equation that caused the banks to crash
In The Observer, Sunday 12 February 2012
Anyone who has followed the crisis will understand that the real economy of businesses and commodities is being upstaged by complicated financial instruments known as derivatives. These are not money or goods. They are investments in investments, bets about bets. Derivatives created a booming global economy, but they also led to turbulent markets, the credit crunch, the near collapse of the banking system and the economic slump. And it was the Black-Scholes equation that opened up the world of derivatives.
The equation itself wasn’t the real problem. It was useful, it was precise, and its limitations were clearly stated. It provided an industry-standard method to assess the likely value of a financial derivative. So derivatives could be traded before they matured. The formula was fine if you used it sensibly and abandoned it when market conditions weren’t appropriate. The trouble was its potential for abuse. It allowed derivatives to become commodities that could be traded in their own right. The financial sector called it the Midas Formula and saw it as a recipe for making everything turn to gold. But the markets forgot how the story of King Midas ended.
Greece: a Sisyphean task | Michael Roberts
In a Eurozone that is unwilling to share its surplus with weaker, hardest hit economies there is no other option for those economies but default. Despite the agreement of Greek politicians to shorten their political life and accept the deal all that they have done is simply postpone this eventuality once again. However, even that postponement might be shortened by the Greek elections in April where the smaller leftist parties outside the coalition currently have 40% of the vote. Or so says Michael Roberts:
Whatever the Greek coalition leaders agree to and try to implement, such is the weakness of Greek capitalism, it will not be able to meet its fiscal targets or get its debt down to reasonable levels. Before the end of the year, the Troika will have to report that Greece is not delivering. Then the EU leaders will have to decide whether they ‘let Greece go’ or not. The EU leaders have agreed to more money for Greece (or more accurately its bondholders and banks) in return for draconian cuts in living standards in order to provide more time to try and ‘ring-fence’ other vulnerable Eurozone states like Portugal and Ireland (where they are preparing extra funding). So when Greece goes down, it will not affect the rest (or so the EU leaders hope). Of course, the Greek people may force the issue earlier if they vote in an anti-Troika government in April.
As Greece stares into the abyss, Europe must choose | Maria Margaronis
Do we really want to live in an economic union that must destroy the future of millions in order to just tick along? Maria Margaronis points out that the situation in Greece today says little about Greece and everything about the EU.
The trouble with historical metaphors is that they can obscure the present: what’s really at stake here is not Greece’s identity but Europe’s. All eyes are fixed on Athens, but the way out of the crisis requires a choice about what kind of Europe we want. The one we have now, with its deep structural inequalities and its rigid adherence to a failed economic ideology, protects neither democracy nor human rights. Stiff-necked and punitive, it prefers to eat its children.
Comment by: Joe Kelly
Jul 1st 2011 at 12:07
A chara
While all the focus re the issue of Domestic Violence is on the women victims (and rightly so) there is hardly any discussion/mention about the male perpetrators and the small though significant work that is been carried out with them. I refer to the work of MOVE (Men Overcoming Violent Emotions ) and the SEDVIP (Sout East Domestic Violence Intervention Programme). Both these groups work with self declared women-abusing men in an effort to prevent future abuse of female partners. Abusive men attend a (usually) six-month group work intensive programme in which they are challenged and supported in changing their abusive behaviour. These are not counselling or therapy groups although there would be elements of both these disciplines involved There is also a very important ‘Partner Contact’ aspect to the work which is a useful check as to what is taking place in the ‘Men’s Group,
Both of theses models of work are preventitive ones in that they operate ‘before the fact’ and attempt to prevent future abuse.
The stated aim is the protection and safety of women and children.
Visit Both web-sites for further information
Comment by: Justin Frewen
Jul 1st 2011 at 16:07
Very good point Joe and thanks for raising it! I had a friend living in a co-op in London and there was a guy there working with men who had engaged in domestic violence. I agree with you that it is very significant work and would would be interested in doing a piece with you on this - I will contact you directly through your email.
Thanks again for the comment!
Slán,
Justin