Up to 70 per cent of criminal-damage and public-order incidents in parts of southwest Dublin are related to domestic violence, with Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard “disproportionately affected” by “elevated” levels of violence against women, a report published on Wednesday warns.
The Dublin City Council-funded report finds “numerous individuals” in Dublin 10 live with ongoing “risk of lethal violence” from partners who “have access to firearms”. It finds young women are being “groomed” into abusive relationships with the promise of drugs, while intergenerational cycles of violence through families are having a “devastating impact ... on children”.
One local woman “recalls a mother she had been working with describing how she had used her baby ‘as a shield’ to protect herself”, notes the report, titled Unveiling the Shadows: Dynamics of Domestic Violence and Abuse in Dublin 10.
Published by Saoirse domestic violence support service and compiled between 2023 and April 2024 by Archways family support, the report was prompted by a 2020 HSE “rapid assessment” that domestic violence was a key factor in an increase in suicides among young women, many of them mothers, in the area in 2018/2019.
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The assessment, ordered by the HSE’s national office of suicide prevention, found Ballyfermot had a female suicide rate three times the national average since 2015 and had endured the deaths of eight women in their 20s and early 30s between April and July 2019. Its findings led to the establishment of the Dublin 10 domestic violence (DV) sub-group, the appointment of a DV outreach worker for the area, and to the new report.
Drawing on interviews with service providers, victims and survivors, and focus groups with Gardaí and women’s groups, it finds a “a higher frequency of severe incidents” of violence perpetrated on women living in Ballyfermot and Cherry Orchard than in surrounding areas.
Victims recounted “being ‘dragged down’, suffering ‘brain injuries’ and enduring attacks so severe they led to epilepsy”, says the report. “The scars, both physical and emotional, are lasting, eroding the victim/survivors’ sense of self and safety.”
Interviewees described children living with violence becoming inured to it and going on to form abusive relationships – “as an endless loop of ‘monkey see, monkey do’”.
Drugs were “contributing significantly to the prevalence and complexity of DV cases”, with one worker commenting: “we do definitely have a lot of young girls ... doing sexual favours for coke ... That’s definitely something that happens in this area.”
Gardaí told researchers “an estimated 60-70 per cent of criminal-damage incidents are related to domestic violence, yet there exists no classification within the Pulse system to indicate this.”
As a result, it says, DV incidents are under-recorded, an issue “particularly pronounced in areas such as Dublin 10″.
- Saoirse domestic violence support centre: 01 463 0000 (24hr).
- Samaritans: 116 123 (available 24hr).
- Pieta House: 1800 247 247 (24hr) or text HELP to 51444.
- Women’s Aid: 1800 341 900 (24hr)
