A St Patrick’s day parade in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo was condemned in the Dáil for having a float simulating rape.
Social Democrats TD Jen Cummins asked “why was a float dedicated to the Epstein files allowed, and why, when children were present at a parade, was any such depiction of rape allowed?
“It is absolutely horrific and joking about rape is part of the problem we have in this society.”
The Dublin South-Central TD was speaking during a Dáil debate on International Women’s Day.
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She said she once worked in a domestic violence refuge for women in London. She was angered then about the way women were treated “and 28 years later I am still horrified by the way women are still being treated”.
“The law has barely moved on to fully protect them. Women are not being protected from their abusers and society is still not calling them out.
“There are people still having a pint in the pub with the perpetrator and they are still not calling that behaviour out in the workplace or many other places and there is still silence.”
Labour TD Mark Wall said that after more than 20 years of political life he was seriously worried about the “dramatic increase” in the number of women he encountered fleeing domestic violence.
“These women, some with children, are leaving extremely volatile and dangerous situations with nothing but the clothes on their back. In many cases, I have had to contact local gardaí to assist with the sickening cases I am coming across.”
He said that because of the housing emergency in Co Kildare, many of the women continued to live with a threatening partner, which “is totally and utterly unsafe”.
Sinn Féin TD Máire Devine said the debate, 10 days after International Women’s Day on March 8th, “kind of reflects women’s place”.
She told the Dáil all the recent research showed Gen Z men, born between 1997 and 2012, have “alarmingly retreated back to the traditional macho roles of masculinity”.
There is pressure on them to conform to rigid gender stereotypes from influencers who “target young men via social media, as do the pornographic sites which depict violence and sex as the norm.
“It is an inescapable fact that these influencers and influences foster the manosphere, which coincides with an alarming increase in violence against women,” she said.
“In Ireland in particular we have higher rates than the EU average. Women and girls are easy targets for young men who are angry and look to blame. They state that they have enough of equality, enough of fairness and enough of women being independent.”
Fine Gael TD Keira Keogh also highlighted the so-called manosphere and said while there are, at times, “legitimate concerns” about men’s mental health or social pressures, “it should not be seen as a licence to force accountability for this on women”.
The Mayo TD said such narratives often “amplify misogyny, encourage hostility towards women and give rise to extreme ideologies”.
