Speech by President Connolly, Launch of Women’s Aid Centre for Learning and Practice Development
Wood Quay Dublin, 25 November 2025
A cháirde,
Go raibh mile maith do Sarah Benson agus Christina Sherlock as ucht an chuiridh agus an deis a bheith anseo i bhur gcomhluadar ag seoladh Lárionad Nua um Foghlaim agus Forbairt Cleachtas in Ionad Ché an Adhmaid i gComhairle Cathrach Bhaile Átha Cliath.
As a national, feminist organisation working to prevent and address the impact of domestic violence and abuse, including coercive control, Women’s Aid has been supporting generations of women and their children for more than 50 years. I want to take this opportunity, if I may, to thank all the staff and volunteers, past and present, for all their work over the decades – work that includes advocacy, fostering awareness, undertaking research and policy support, providing training, but most importantly their frontline services offering support to women and their children who find themselves in the horrific circumstances of domestic violence.
Today, the 25th of November, is of course a significant date as we mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. It is a day that calls on all of us to confront, without hesitation and without excuse, the ongoing and painful reality of gender-based violence in our society.
We have come a long way as a society in recognising, challenging, and addressing the pervasive issues of domestic and intimate partner violence. Legislation has improved, awareness has grown, and our public discourse has become more open and informed. Such positive changes represent the outcome of the efforts of hard-working and courageous women across our society over the generations.
However, while progress has been made, there is still so much work to be done in addressing the sources, the structures, and the practice of violence, particularly the violence that takes place behind closed doors, often unseen, too often unspoken, and always devastating.
Gender-based violence is an affront to human dignity, to equality, and to the fundamental right of every person to live safely and freely.
The United Nations 2030 Agenda recognises this fact. Sustainable Development Goal Number 5, which aims to achieve gender equality, includes specific targets to end violence against women and girls, in both public and private spheres.
Sustainable Development Goal Number 16, on ‘Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions’, also includes a relevant and related target to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking, and all forms of violence against children.
Unfortunately, as is the case with so many of the Sustainable Development Goals, we are not making sufficient progress and, in some cases, we are in fact regressing.
The figures from Women’s Aid bear this out starkly. Last year, your national and frontline services were contacted over 32,000 times, a 12 percent increase on 2023, the highest number recorded in your 51-year history.
Behind every contact is a woman, a child, a family. We must never allow numbers, however shocking, to obscure the humanity of those who turn to you in their most vulnerable hours.
At its most extreme, domestic violence and abuse kills women and it kills children too.
The global trends for acts of femicide are not encouraging. UN Women tells us that 85,000 (83,000) women and girls were killed intentionally in 2024 across the world, with 60 percent of these homicides being committed by an intimate partner or a family member. Every day 137 women and girls are killed by an intimate partner or other members of their family.
In Ireland, while murders overall have fallen over time, the proportion of those with a domestic abuse motivation represented the majority of murders (52 percent) for the first time in 2021. Women’s Aid informs us that 277 women have died violently between 1996 and the present. These are all deeply shocking statistics.
Any society that continues to tolerate behaviour that allows women to become victims of violence, discrimination, belittlement, abuse, or aggression is failing in its duty to its citizens. We must continue to use every means at our disposal to prevent gender-based violence, to expose it, to challenge it, and to redress the profound harm it causes to the lives of far too many women and children.
Míle buíochas daoibh uilig as bhur n-iarrachtaí go dtí seo agus gach rath oraibh don todhchaí.
This is why today’s launch of the Women’s Aid Centre for Learning and Practice Development is so significant. It is a powerful commitment to strengthening domestic abuse-informed responses through training, support and collaboration, designed to enhance understanding of domestic abuse and coercive control, and providing the opportunity to develop skills to respond safely and effectively to those subjected to it. In doing so, you are contributing positively to a person’s journey to safety, freedom and empowerment.
As we mark this International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, let us reaffirm the principles that guide us: equality, dignity, solidarity.
Let us pledge to build an Ireland where every woman and girl can live their lives free from violence, coercion, and fear, and may today’s work inspire renewed resolve in all of us to make this a reality.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh go leir.