The format social discourse takes when yet another horrific murder of a woman occurs is, unfortunately, all too familiar: outrage, women sharing their experiences of assault and harassment, declarations of ‘never again’, and claims that a watershed moment is nigh.
In Ireland over the past fortnight, following the murder of 23-year-old Ashling Murphy, this familiar discourse has flooded social media, newspapers, radio, TV and parliament itself.
But the capacity for a nation to change and address such a huge problem depends on a willingness to do so. For Ireland, our recent era of self-examination may leave us better positioned than others to begin dismantling this fundamental tenet of patriarchy and misogyny: male violence against women.
