Nearly every newspaper had a version of the same front cover. Two young women, blonde hair, bright smiles and even brighter futures; at a glance you could almost mistake them for sisters. The real connection between them is much darker; Natalie McNally, victim of a brutal murder in December 2022, whose murderer was finally brought to justice on Monday, and Amy Doherty, who was murdered the day before.

Between Natalie McNally and Amy Doherty sit the names of 13 other women, and more if you count girls. One woman, Ellie Flanagan, was added to this terrible litany earlier in the month.

Outside the courtroom, McNally’s brother Declan spoke to the media and called violence against women and girls the “shame of our society”, and he is correct. Northern Ireland has a mammoth problem. For our small population, we are outstripping other jurisdictions in one area over all others – the murder of women. Looking at the map which Women’s Aid maintains, which uses a dot to represent every woman murdered on the island, the eye is immediately drawn to the northeast. What on earth is going on up there? It’s difficult to know where to start.

The North is haunted by its ever-present past – the long shadow of the conflict means that a form of violence which was characterised until recently as merely “domestic” did not get the attention it deserved. This has created a situation where some are primed to dismiss the range of behaviours that we call violence against women and girls as simply not that big a deal by comparison. The conflict also remains a drain on the financial resources of the state; legacy costs........

© The Irish Times