Like an aggressive cancer within society, violence against women is spreading and growing across Ireland. In 2024 alone, An Garda Síochána responded to more than 65,000 domestic abuse incidents. And the crisis is deepening year by year.
Nearly half of all women have experienced verbal abuse in public spaces, while one-third have been subjected to physical harassment. In the workplace, one in four young women report experiencing sexual harassment. Femicide now accounts for almost 30 percent of all homicides – a figure that has more than doubled over the past decade.
This spiralling crisis of gender-based violence is not accidental. In fact, it is inseparable from the deepening crisis of capitalism in Ireland. And it is being intensified by years of austerity, crisis and decimation of public services and infrastructure. Nowhere is this link more clearly exposed than in the housing crisis.
The majority of serious assaults against women happen in the home. Yet with average rents exceeding €2,000 a month, many face impossible barriers to leaving abusive situations.
Ireland still has less than 30 percent of the family refuge spaces recommended under the Istanbul Convention. Meanwhile, Budget 2026 allocated just €80 million to Cuan, the state agency for domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence – less than half of what is estimated to be necessary. And of course, this comes at a time when Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have decided to double the military budget.
To be sure, the problem extends beyond infrastructure and housing. Violence against women is embedded within the structures of capitalist Ireland. Recent cases make this starkly clear.
Following the brutal rape of a UCD medical student and the added trauma of having her naked pictures shared online, she was left with no option but to take the university to court in an effort to get permission to resit exams she missed due to an abortion. When her case was dismissed, she was even ordered to pay for UCD’s legal costs!
This comes only a few years after Natasha O’Brien was attacked by an Irish soldier, who only received a suspended sentence before massive public outrage.
An Garda Síochána are far too often the perpetrators themselves. Miriam O’ Callaghan was attacked by her husband, Trevor, a serving garda at the time.
She herself said the process of going through the judicial system was “as traumatising and damaging as the abuse”. And even then, her ex-husband’s more serious charges were dropped following a plea agreement.
And the list of such cases goes on and on…
The Irish state has a long and bleak record of complicity in the most vicious oppression of women. It is time we overthrow this rotten system once and for all.
The struggle against gender-based violence is inseparable from the struggle against the capitalist system that provides a fertile soil for it to grow.
It’s time we put workers and young people at the forefront of society.
It’s time we fight for a united, socialist Ireland, free from oppression and inequality!
