Offaly community effort to make society safer for women in wake of brutal murder

Tullamore & District Rotary Club has coordinated a community response to the Draft National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence (DSGBV).

A total of 51 civil and societal organisations including industry, sporting, religious, law enforcement and educational groups, NGOs and aid agencies responded to the survey.

Minister for Justice Helen McEntee met members of Rotary and representatives from the contributing organisations to officially launch the submission on Saturday morning last in Tullamore.

The Minister said she had last been in the area following the brutal murder of Ashling Murphy in January which she described as “an extraordinarily difficult time.”

Among the community and sporting groups representatives at the launch was Sharon Doyle, Chairperson of Kilcormac/ Killoughey camogie club, of which the late Ashling had been a playing member.

Ms Doyle told the Tribune they were honoured to be asked to participate in the survey at a time she described as a “griefing period” for Ashling.

Rotary President Professor Eoin Sheehan said the “club recognises and acknowledges that there is a need for major change to ensure an end to incidences of domestic, sexual and gender based violence, and for a strategy that will be delivered quickly and effectively.”

Committee Chair Ronan Berry, who was Master of Ceremonies at the launch, noted “this response is a true representation of the voice of our community. Our community wants to be front and centre in ensuring that the third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual and Gender Based Violence works and creates a safer society for women.

“Issues relating to gender based violence, in particular violent and aggressive behavior towards women, are unfortunately continuing to dominate news headlines on a daily basis. This strategy needs to be the sea change in attitudes and behaviours in Irish society.”

This group’s response calls for the establishment of a cross-Departmental High Level Implementation Committee.

This approach will ensure effective delivery of the strategy by ensuring coordination between the myriad state bodies and groups focussed on this critical area.

Tullamore is proposed as a pilot town for key initiatives agreed within the strategy.

The club believes this response recognises that this issue cannot be solved by policy alone and dozens of groups in the town have agreed to participate in real ways, be it a community-based project or national awareness campaign.

Professor Sheehan said the club were deeply honoured to have the Minister for Justice come to Tullamore to launch their submission.