To celebrate International Women’s Day this Sunday 8th March we wanted to show some of the great work being done by our donors and the charities they support through The Women’s Fund. We set up this fund in 2010 to improve the lives of women and girls across Ireland and have a society where women are nurtured, empowered and equal.
One of the biggest benefactors of the fund so far has been Safe Ireland, who work to end domestic abuse and help make Ireland the safest country in the world for women and children. More than €350,000 has been contributed from The Community Foundation for Ireland and our generous donors to support the crucial work of Safe Ireland. Other organisations to benefit from continued strategic funding include the Women’s Council of Ireland and Women for Election while smaller grants have gone to women’s shelters around the country such as Cuan Saor in Tipperary.
One of the impacts we would like to highlight in this area is the introduction of the Domestic Violence Act 2018 into Irish law. The act features the new offense of coercive control. This is psychological abuse in an intimate relationship that causes fear of violence, or serious alarm or distress that has a substantial adverse impact on a person’s day-to-day activities. Upon its introduction, Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan commented: “The new offence of coercive control recognises that the effect of non-violent control in an intimate relationship can be as harmful to victims as physical abuse because it is an abuse of the unique trust associated with an intimate relationship.”
Recently we saw the first example of a prosecution for coercive control. The sentence of 21 months was handed down at Letterkenny Circuit Court to a man who harassed his girlfriend with over 5,700 phone calls in the space of three months. This was a significant and positive move forward for victims of domestic abuse and has been welcomed by various women’s groups. Catriona Gleeson of Safe Ireland noted: “The successful prosecution in this case shows that everybody has a role to support the identification of coercive control, not as a once off incident but as a pernicious pattern of harassment, stalking, intimidation and control. Tracking a pattern of behaviour requires resources, but also a full understanding of the nature of the crime.”
Safe Ireland along with many other groups and individuals deserve great credit for helping to bring about this positive, tangible change and in doing so making Ireland a safer place for women. “The funding from The Community Foundation has allowed us to pioneer change in the area of domestic violence. It has been pivotal in the legislative change we’ve recently seen gone through the Dail. It’s given us the courage to think outside the box, be creative and push for new responses to domestic violence in Ireland" Sharon O’ Halloran, CEO, Safe Ireland