The femicide crisis in the North of Ireland

A Northern Irish politician, speaking on Good Morning Ulster, cited “precarious work” and “poverty wages” as issues. These contribute to North of Ireland having the worst rate of femicide across Britain and Ireland. During her television appearance, Sinn Féin MLA Deirdre Hargey said:

We need a different type of economy that actually supports women within the workplace, where there is well paid jobs and not precarious employment. Some of these women, they don’t have the finance, the independence, and that’s how some of these perpetrators try to encage them.

These issues have come to the forefront of public debate after two young women were murdered in March, as well as the conviction of a man who killed his pregnant partner in 2022.

Ellie Flanagan, 23 year-old, was murdered on 7 March by Martin McCarne—her mother’s husband. McCarney was charged with murder and “possession of an offensive weapon (three knives).”

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) found 28 year old Amy Doherty murdered at an address in Derry on 21 March. They arrested a 30-year-old man arrested on suspicion of the crime.

Finally, on 23 March a jury determined that Stephen McCullagh had brutally killed partner Natalie McNally at her home in Lurgan three years ago. McCullagh stabbed, beat, and strangled McNally in a brutal attack. He attempted to conceal his crime by blaming it on Natalie’s ex-partner.

Hargey also discussed the issue of housing, with a lack of available properties ready for women wishing to escape domestic violence.

She urged solving:

…blockages in housing for women who are in situations where there is violence perpetrated against them.

Socialist feminist group ROSA North cited similar underlying causes leading to cruel and violent deaths of women and girls. They called for Stormont to focus on:

…ending poverty wages and rampant worker exploitation which disproportionately affects women.

Their statement referred to the need to challenge a capitalist system:

…which allows wealthy and powerful men to abuse ordinary people rampantly.

The group called for this as part of a broader cultural shift which:

…challenges the ideas, culture and norms underpinning the violence; that challenges the impunity abusers are imbued with [and] that challenges rape myths and culture…

The Six Counties (the de-colonial term used to refer to the North of Ireland) undeniably has a problem when it comes to ensuring the safety of women and girls. Official data from 2020 to 2025, shows that there were 30 cases of femicide. That’s a rate of 0.52 per 100,000 people for the period. In contrast, the rate is 0.45 in England and Wales, and 0.24 in Scotland. Most shocking is the comparison with the South of Ireland. There, the figure is 0.15.

For some reason Chief Constable of the PSNI Jon Boutcher thought the appropriate response to this was to defensively quibble over statistics. Rather than simply acknowledge the reality of the problem, he should pledge to improve the force’s approach to it.

On 26 March, Boutcher spoke of a statistical error in a 2019 BBC report that may have given a misleading impression regarding rates of domestic in the North of Ireland. Speaking before the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in Westminster, he said that the BBC had cited 8 murders for the year 2017. In reality, only four murders had occurred.

That’s a moot point given the figures discussed above. Boutcher then went on to give a self-serving, rambling, and incoherent response to what the police might do to prevent femicide.

Boutcher instead focused on the rise of the manosphere — the cretinous online influencers who push a misogynistic worldview, instead of looking at the wholesale issue of femicide. While turds like Andrew Tate are undoubtedly a malign influence, their recent emergence doesn’t explain rising rates of domestic violence. Over the past 15 years rates remain appallingly high.

Hargey suggested the PSNI need to ask themselves:

Are we prioritising it as much as we could be?

She said it was “something we have been pushing the police on.” Like any social problem, the police are rarely the sole nor ultimate solution. They can however do more and invest greater funds to ensure women are protected.

Recognising the scale of the crisis, ROSA North called for everyone in society to be part of a movement combating gender violence. Citing MeToo, Ni Una Menos in Latin America, and Black Lives Matter, the group said:

Let’s look to them for the much needed inspiration to keep fighting for the radically different world we believe possible.

Featured image via the Canary