fbpx

Lack of Domestic Violence Refuges for Men in Ireland

Health - February 3, 2025
The chronic and enduring absence of accommodation-based refuges for male victims of domestic violence (DV) in Ireland mirrors a similarly appalling deficit across many EU member states.
This infrastructural void, contributing as it does to a lack of protective or life preserving options when the need for a safe harbour arises in times of enormous distress and harm for the victim, effectively amounts to another form of abuse.
This lack of dedicated spaces is matched only by a critical lack of research specifically focusing on the emotional physical and psychological impact of domestic violence on Irish males which is defined here in line with the Istanbul Convention as “all acts of physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence that occur within the family of domestic unit or between former or current spouses or partners, whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the victim.”
An attempt to address this major gap in academic research was performed in 2023 by Melissa Corbally, PhD School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin, Benjamin Alexander Hine, PhD School of Human and Social Sciences, University of West London, London, UK Barry Kestell, PhD School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health, Dublin City University.
However, while this research entitled, Characteristics of Men Who Seek Help From an Irish Domestic Abuse Helpline: The MENCALLHELP Study was helpful, it also heavily relies on a profoundly contested understanding of conceptual tools relating to colonisation, religion and the fluidity of gender roles.
With respect to research performed on the island of Ireland we can point to Male Experiences of Intimate Partner Violence: The ME-IPV Study.
The difficulty here however, as the authors note, is that while Intimate Partner Violence shares many of the same definitional characteristics as domestic violence (“any act of “physical violence, sexual violence, stalking and psychological aggression (including coercive tactics) by a current or former intimate partner,” it must be seen as a distinct category.
The reason provided for this is that IPV is specific to an intimate partner while domestic violence strictly speaking can also include child/parent and sibling abuse.
Nevertheless, the Queens University Study offers essential insights that contribute enormously to our understanding of the impact of violence on males at the children and adult level.
Returning to the specific issue of the absence of accommodation-based services, it cannot be over-stated how bleak the situation is in Ireland with respect to refuges for male victims (and their children).
For while Tusla, the Irish states child and family agency, provides funding to over 60 organisations in the community and voluntary sector delivering specialist support services to victims of domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, including over 20 refuges for women and children there is no state funded accommodation-based services catering exclusively to male victims of domestic violence.
The closest Ireland has come to date to delivering such an accommodation-based service was the short -lived implementation in 2021 by Safe Ireland (the national development and co-ordination body working to eradicate domestic violence) in conjunction with Airbnb of free emergency hotel bed-nights for male and female victims (Operation Ruby). But this came to an end in July 2022.
Although there were reports that the learnings from Operation Ruby would be used to explore new options for emergency accommodation and how these could be integrated into the full range of crisis and safe accommodation needed for victims and survivors of domestic violence, the practical outcomes in terms of accommodation-based services three years are disheartening.
This had led to severe criticism from campaigners as Tusla has repeatedly stressed that it recognises the importance of having available and responsive domestic and gender-based violence services (DSGBV) “for people of all genders,” while also accepting that the Irish state and its statutory agencies need to consider access to safe accommodation for men fleeing domestic violence.
To begin to address this process Tusla had stated that it would focus on developing pathways to safe accommodation for men in 2022 in the Dublin area initially. This was expected to be extended “once an effective approach can be established.”
No such effective approach has been forthcoming despite commitments at the highest levels of Irish Government that it would “ensure victims would receive a wrap-around service through the creation of clear integrated local pathways for female and male victims of domestic violence.
This commitment was provided in Ireland’s Zero Tolerance Third National Strategy on Domestic, Sexual & Gender-Based Violence 2022-2026. The astonishing lack of urgency can be seen in the detail of the Implementation Plan for the Strategy. It was made clear there that while these ‘wrap-around services’ would be part of the overall service delivery plan to be developed and co-designed with the sector, they would remain a “medium-term priority.”
This lack of practical urgency is difficult to comprehend given the scale of the problem for male victims of domestic violence. Here again, however we do run up against the lack of contemporary, robust statistical data.
This has been pointed out by organisations such as Men’s Aid, one of Irelands few NGO’s dedicated to supporting male victims of domestic violence.
The study further suggested that in the region of 88,000 men and 213,000 women in Ireland had been severely abused by a partner at some point in their lives.
In response to this, Men’s Aid make the very obvious point, that quoting 16 year old research does not inform us on the current, real prevalence across our communities and that further research needs to be commissioned to provide recent up to date, valuable insights, necessary to better understand the needs of particular groups including men.
Men’s Aid have also strongly criticised Tusla and in particular its most recent Review of the provision of Accommodation for Victims Domestic Violence.
According to Men’s Aid, there are “huge concerns regarding the gaps in regard to service delivery for the thousands of victims who are male.”
Similar concerns have been expressed at the poor level of service availability for male victims in the North of Ireland. The Stormont administration’s Domestic and Sexual Abuse Strategy recently confirmed that almost a fifth of domestic abuse victims in Northern Ireland are male.
Just as in the Republic of Ireland however, there are no refuges for male victims of domestic abuse.
The BBC has reported Northern Ireland’s Commissioner designate for victims of crime Geraldine Hanna described is as “deeply concerning”.
She is also reported to have informed Ulster media that there is a clear need for policies and processes “that address the unique needs of men and boys and highlights potential gaps in service provision, particularly in rural areas.”
Ms Hanna went to state said there was still a “crushing stigma” experienced by men who report domestic abuse, which feeds into the response they receive when they ask for help.”
All of the available literature points to a similar assessment of the experience of male victims right across the Island of Ireland.
To conclude. What should be clear from this brief overview is that while there are numerous national and international strategies aimed at ending the scourge of domestic and gender based violence, the vast majority of the debate on this issue continues to centre predominantly on the experience of women as victims of this crime. That is perfectly understandable up to a point.
The majority of victims are indeed women. But the fact remains that there is a significant number of male victims that require specific, targeted supports to meet their particular needs, and this is not happening on anything like the scale it should be happening.
As long as this situation prevails, male victims and indeed their children will effectively, if unintentionally, continue to be viewed as an afterthought or a mere ‘sub-set’ of victims to be accommodated at some unspecified time in the future.
Men in these situations do not require more rhetoric. They need accommodation-based services. A failure to deliver could very well mean the difference between life and death. Ireland and the EU must respond accordingly.