Letters to the Editor: Law should do more to protect victims

More than 52% of the call-outs by An Garda Síochána in 2022 were for cases of domestic violence.

Statistically, women who leave their abusers are 75% more at risk of being killed by their partners, than the women who stay.

More than 95% of female homicides are committed by an intimate partner, an ex-partner, or a co-worker. The attacks can come in the form of an ambush and happen:

• 1. At home;
• 2. At work;
• 3. On the way to and from both.

As Mr Poole stated: “Stop talking strategies and take action.”

‘Clare’s Law’ was enforced in the UK almost 10 years ago. Why are we almost 10 years behind our neighbours?

Mr Poole and his family have achieved something great; they have doubled the sentencing for domestic violence cases within our judicial system — yet, suspended sentences are being handed out within our courtrooms faster than coffee breaks are being taken in Dáil Éireann. We should waive GDPR rules and make allowances to save people’s lives. If something as simple as GDPR is holding back such a desperately needed change within our country, well, in my opinion, it’s pathetic.

Victims of crime in Ireland have pitiful rights, however it seems the abuser(s) have about 10 times the rights of the victims.

How is this right? How do we live in a country that chooses to prolong the suffering of the people who have been neglected at the hands of our own law?

It is beyond time for change.

Let us honour our lost victims; it is time for justice to prevail.

To the Poole family and to all warriors and survivors, we should say they are not alone. I promise to fight right beside you.

We must stay safe in this dangerous country we call home.

Aoife Rose O’Brien, 30-year-old single mother, aspiring activist, and survivor. Address with The Editor

An immigrant's apology to the people of Inch

As an immigrant to Ireland 25 years ago I have visited Co Clare often — including Inch.

I was unaware my presence, and that of friends I brought with me, was so upsetting to the locals. Please accept my apologies. I shall make sure to tell everyone I know to avoid your town.

I hope folks can reach out around the globe to let people know to avoid Inch so that people there can live their lives peacefully, without the intrusion of outsiders.

Again, my sincere apologies and I hope the people of Inch can find it in their hearts to forgive me.

Kevin Lyda, Caherlistrane, Co Galway. 

Do we really see people when we share videos?

In the aftermath of the horrific attack on the secondary school student in Navan, Co Meath, you say that “social media companies getting increased traffic as a result of that footage need to look at themselves” (editorial, May 19).

Maybe the time is long overdue when we all need to look at ourselves and ask how we look at others (whether in videos or on the street) — do we really see another human being?

In their tour of Tate Britain, researching their short book Look Again: Gender (2021) Travis Alabanza, writer, performer, and theatre maker, imagines a conversation at the end of the day taking place in the gallery between two Henry Moore sculptures, ‘Reclining Figure’ (1951) and ‘Recumbent Figure’ (1938).

Alabanza’s book is part of series titled Look Again, intended to open a conversation about British art over the years and exploring what art has to tell us about our lives today.

In their chat, Recumbent Figure complained: “Someone tried to put a sticker on me today.”

The same figure goes on to say: “I didn’t mind too much, because of what was on it. It said: ‘It’s OK to be trans.’ I’d never felt so seen.”

The shocking sharing of images, by adults, of the schoolboy assault might be addressed in some way if Stephen Doyle’s picture, ‘Dylan is Ainm Dom (2018)’ at the Crawford Gallery, Cork, was hung next to the life-size statue of teenage Blessed Carlo Acutis, recently installed in St Eugene’s Cathedral, Derry.

What, I wonder, would they have to say to each other, and reveal to “onlookers” about our values today?

In the circumstances, I think it would be an apt ‘shrine’ for a period of reflection and to light a candle for the young assault victim.

Travis Alabanza has Reclining Figure reply to Recumbent Figure: “Out of all the faces, portraits, kings and queens, images of humans in flesh and robes and all the other places the kid could have put that sticker, they picked you. Maybe you are the one place they felt most at home? As if in order to find something outside structures, we have to go outside of the body.”

Very Rev Peadar O’Callaghan, Teach An tSagairt, Carrigtwohill, Co Cork. 

Populist line is not exactly progressive

The best parents are those who don’t always give in to children’s demands.

Similarly, the people who are best, and most successful, at managing sports teams, businesses, and other forms of human endeavour are those who are willing and able to take tough decisions, at times, in the interests of those for whom they take responsibility.

The successful management of a modern democracy also requires that tough or unpopular decisions are faced with courage. 

Looking across the political spectrum, at present, it appears that the number of elected representatives with the necessary backbone to take on those kind of difficult responsibilities is depressingly small.

Among the opposition, only the Labour Party has a track record in this regard but recently they too seem to have joined the populist movement.

Finally, I believe that it is vital to our future wellbeing that the media get the balance right by not rewarding every populist outburst nor by constantly kicking those required to make the hard choices.

We have seen, in recent years, in the UK and in the US, the damaging consequences of significant media outlets following the populist line.

Pat O’Mahony, Westport, Co Mayo. 

Spyware must be evidentially sound

Is the State writing its own spyware — ‘Government will not say if spyware is used to monitor Irish citizens’ (Irish Examiner online, May 7)? If so, that software would have to be audited to see if the evidence it is producing is forensically sound.

If there is no control over the software, then the software may itself be generating incriminating evidence. For example, if the use of location data has been found to be inaccurate.

In Denmark, several people were released from prison because of inaccurate geolocation data.

Martin O’Sullivan, New Navan Rd, Blanchardstown Centre, Co Dublin.