Thousands attend Derry ‘Rally For Women’s Safety’

Upwards of 2,000 people attended a Rally For Women’s Safety in Derry’s Guildhall Square, in protest against recent attacks on women in the city and district.

The rally on Friday night began with photographs of the 24 women murdered in the North since 2020 being held aloft on the Guildhall steps.

Organiser, Derry City and Strabane District councillor Catherine McDaid (SDLP) said she had been “overwhelmed” by the support she had received since first mooting the idea.

Addressing the crowd she said: "I am so glad to see women and men here, standing together in solidarity with us, telling the men who think it is okay to attack a woman that that is not acceptable."

Bethany Moore (Alliance for Choice Derry) said there was "an epidemic” of violence against women and girls in the North.

SDLP leader Claire Hanna described the issue of violence against women as “urgent and universal”.

She added: "But, we can't ignore that the context this week is also the election of a predator as President of the United States of America and the feeling that that is a cause for celebration for many people, including political leaders here and a feeling that is only empowering misogynistic language and abuse, as anybody who has picked up a screen in the last few days will know is seeping through."

My @DerryNow piece on last night's Rally For Women's Safety in Guildhall Square.

There will be a full report in Monday's Derry News. pic.twitter.com/pvRYbsJEdi

— Catherine McGinty (@CathMcGin_Tea) November 9, 2024

One woman attending the rally told The Derry News she was attending because “gathering with others who are just as horrified and angered by these attacks as I am is the only thing I feel I can do.”

Preferring to remain anonymous, she added: “Like most women, I feel completely powerless. And, for the first time ever, hopeless. I will be 50 next year and I don’t think I have ever in my life experienced such deep-rooted and pervasive misogyny in our society.

“We have a police service, where two thirds of the serving officers are male, that seems completely ill-equipped to deal adequately with incidents of male violence against women, whether in the form of domestic violence or sexual assault.

“The appalling way the PSNI handled Katie Simpson’s murder speaks to the institutional sexism within the PSNI, where attacks on women are often minimised or ignored by the very people who are sworn to protect citizens and uphold the law.

“We have a judicial system where men who have committed despicable attacks on women are routinely handed inappropriately light - often suspended - sentences. What message is that sending?

Our Assembly and council’s are full of politicians who simply don’t have the critical thinking skills or expertise to do anything beyond parroting pre-approved soundbites and empty rhetoric on this issue. What we need from them is a pragmatic, coherent approach to legislation and policy-making that will make a real difference to women’s lives,” she said.

She added that she thought it “very sad” the overwhelming majority of suggestions being made this week about how the community addressed the issue of violence against women “centred on how women - not men - should alter their behaviour”.

“People were talking about carrying rape alarms, learning self-defence, travelling in groups,” she said, “and, while I have no doubt these suggestions are well meaning, this approach removes responsibility from the men carrying out these acts. I feel there are echoes here of the misogynistic campaigns of old that warned women not to drink heavily and not to wear provocative clothing.

“As a society, there should be a zero tolerance attitude to all forms of male violence against women. There should be a robust policing strategy and judicial sentences that truly reflect the heinous nature of these crimes.

“I also think we need to have a frank conversation about the rise of hardcore pornography that depicts acts of violent and degrading sexual aggression towards women and its impact on boys and young men and how it is shaping male attitudes to women - particularly in relation to consent - and how we can address this.

“I don’t think we can have an honest conversation about the climate of misogyny that is contributing to the rise in male violence against women without acknowledging the misogyny of the situation currently where men claiming a female identity are being granted access to spaces which the law states are female-only in the interests of safety, privacy and fairness - women’s prisons and women’s sports,” she concluded.

Maeve O'Neill (People Before Profit) said she was “furious that the North of Ireland is the most dangerous place in Europe to be a woman.

Sinn Fein councillor Aisling Hutton said her first thoughts were with the women who suffered the recent attacks.

Alderman Niree McMorris said everyone must stand together to end vio;ence against women and girls.

Then came one of the most heartbreakingly angering moments of the rally when Sophia McFeely, Anita Villa, Nina Pulis and Ciara O'Connor-Pozo read aloud the names of the 24 women murdered in the North since 2020.

Following a minute’s silence, Derry singer Cora Harkin ended the rally with a powerful rendition of Dreams by The Cranberries.