New Mayo memorial garden to 276 women who have died by femicide
A MEMORIAL garden dedicated to the 276 women who have died by femicide in Ireland since 1996 is being unveiled in Mayo.
The December 9 unveiling, in Castlebar, is one of two campaigns being rolled out by Safe Ireland to mark 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.
This year’s UN theme for the 16 Days is 'UNiTE to End Digital Violence against All Women and Girls', and the first campaign is a social media focus on technology facilitated abuse.
Tech-abuse is a vicious weapon of coercive control in most perpetrators’ arsenal. Last year 53,441 tech-abuse reports were made to Hotline.ie - an increase of 32% on the previous year.
Safe Ireland note that we must have capacity to identify and resist such attacks. These resistance skills can be learned, and enable victims to regain control. Safe Ireland Tech offers some guidelines (available at safeireland.ie).
Safe Ireland’s second campaign is at community level in frontline services in Mayo, Cavan and Monaghan.
Frontline staff and community allies have created two memorial gardens dedicated to the 276 women who died by femicide since 1996. The image and metaphor is one of transformative process, with 276 individual free-standing butterfly pieces honouring each woman’s short-cut life and marking the possibility that the future will not repeat the past.
The Mayo garden will be launched on December 9 at Safe Ireland’s Refuge and Support Services in Mayo.
The Cavan/Monaghan memorial was launched on Friday last.
CEO of Safe Ireland, Mary McDermott, said: “It is difficult to assert hope in times of extreme coercion - ask any victim of domestic abuse. 276 women have died needlessly since 1996 because of male violence against females.
“Sex, gender and sexuality-based violence and control is an ancient pattern of subjection. We recognise these patterns and understand that perpetrators will weaponise anything to retain control - especially available escape routes. The ability to see these patterns is a key survival skill.
“Community-based specialist domestic violence services offer cocoon, safe spaces to name and manage harsh truths, transform, access community and live free again. We are hopeful, skilled and resilient.”