Tacking gender-based violence is a “major concern” that requires an “island-wide lens” and cross-Border co-operation, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.
He was speaking following a meeting with staff and service users from Women’s Aid in Belfast on Thursday.
Meeting women who had come through abuse and hearing their first-hand accounts was an “impactful encounter”, he said.
His comments came two days after a damning report found an investigation by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) into the murder of showjumper Katie Simpson was a “profound failure” characterised by a culture of “institutional misogyny” and “complacency”.
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Addressing a packed room in the Great Hall of Queen’s University, where he delivered the David Trimble lecture on Thursday evening, the Taoiseach spoke about all-island challenges.
Femicide rates have risen sharply in the North, with 30 women violently murdered over the past six years.
“Tackling gender-based violence is a major concern for both jurisdictions,” he said. “It is one where an island-wide lens and co-operative approaches can enhance our responses in government and wider society.”
The event was part of a two-day visit by the Taoiseach to Northern Ireland where he also met Stormont politicians and business leaders.
A €700 million cross-Border investment deal for a fleet of new Enterprise trains that will reduce journey times on the main Dublin to Belfast service was signed off earlier on Thursday.
During his lecture at Queen’s, Martin referenced research which showed people living in the Republic have “nowhere near the level of engagement with the North that previous generations had”.
“We are all the poorer for this,” he said. “That is why I launched the Shared Home Place programme, a dialogue programme inviting people from across all communities and traditions on this island, and beyond in the diaspora, to explore what a Shared Home Place means to them – past, present and future.”
Irishness “does not stop at the Border”, he added, “nor does Britishness in all of its various aspects”.
The Taoiseach repeated his pledge to work to for “reconciliation of the different traditions of this island” and the engagement and understanding which are a precondition for this.
The principles of the 1998 Belfast Agreement “remain central” to the work of the Irish Government and “how we foster relationships across these islands,” he said.
Paying tribute to David Trimble, a key architect of the landmark peace deal that ended the Troubles, he said the former Ulster Unionist leader showed a “level of personal and political bravery” which was “underappreciated at the time and should not be allowed to be forgotten.”
“Throughout the negotiations, David displayed a capacity for building new relationships while working to maintain trust among different strands in his own core constituencies.
“Repeatedly this involved facing deep criticism from them. This required real character and perseverance.”
During the peace process there were times when unionist communities “felt that the Government of Ireland could have done more,” according to the Taoiseach.
“That is something for us to acknowledge and to continue to reflect on,” he said.
“Our aim should not be to re-litigate old arguments, nor should we dismiss the complex hurt that runs through all communities.
“Again, to paraphrase David, we can only start from where we actually are, not from some other place where we would like to be. But we have started, and we will go on.”
