Why is Northern Ireland 'UK's most dangerous place to be a woman'?

It's a Monday afternoon and outside a courtroom, the family of Natalie McNally, killed when she was 15 weeks pregnant, watch on as her partner is found guilty of her murder.

Some 70 miles away, the family of Amy Doherty, a mother-of-two, is in mourning after she too was murdered, with a man later being arrested on suspicion of the crime.

The lives of two much-loved women taken far too soon, and the impact of their loss felt by countless others.

This is only a snapshot, as when you stand back, you see they are only two of the 30 women violently killed in Northern Ireland since 2020.

It's a troubling statistic in a country with a population of just 1.9m, and one that has prompted Secretary of State Hilary Benn to say it was "shameful" that Northern Ireland was the "most dangerous place to be a woman".

Of the 30 woman killed, in all but one the perpetrator or suspected perpetrator has been a man. In most, the man was well known to the woman.

"It horrifies me. It should anger us all," Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said.

But why is Northern Ireland proving such a dangerous place for women? And what is being done to change that?

On Tuesday, Belfast's Waterfront Hall was packed with about 800 young women for a mentoring event called SistersIN.

The event is about helping them find their future path into work, but the headlines this week are not far from their minds.

"You want to go out and do as many things as you want to do," said Kayla.

"But there's always that fear that you won't be able to do what you want because there's violence against women."

Eve said: "We're half the population, it's insane that we have to experience this. Men experience stuff as well but it's horrible that the amount of extra load that it puts on us in our daily life."

That anxiety is borne out in figures, although it is impossible to say whether Northern Ireland is statistically the worst place in the UK to be a woman, as per Hilary Benn, due to the way data is compiled.

In Scotland, there is no record if the perpetrator is male.

Figures recorded for all femicides in Scotland, where there was a relationship between the victim and the suspect, show the highest number of female homicides was 16 in the year 2021/22. The lowest was 10 in the year 2020/21.

Exploring why this is such a problem in Northern Ireland prompts difficult questions about its complicated past.

During 30 years of violence, known as The Troubles, more than 3,500 people were killed.

Dr Conor Murray, a senior lecturer in criminology at Ulster University, is the author of Young Men, Masculinities and Imprisonment: An ethnographic study in Northern Ireland.

He said violence has been "normalised" because of the Troubles.

"Some boys are growing up in communities that are shaped by violence, where everyday activities such as walking to school or playing football in the street, take place under the gaze of murals depicting gunmen in balaclavas, so violence is part of the everyday for them," he said.

Murray said the trauma left behind in the wake of the Troubles must be addressed.

"Until we deal with the transgenerational trauma, the high levels of mental health issues, self-harm and suicide, it will be difficult to fully progress away from the issues that we're facing with violence today."

This week political figures from Hilary Benn to the deputy first minister have weighed in on the problem and the need to tackle it – but just what is being done?

The devolved government launched its Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy in 2024. It was the last part of the UK to do so.

Little-Pengelly said the strategy is "at a very early stage", and a "very complex issue".

Despite the complexities, there seems to be an agreement that education and early intervention is key.

Earlier this week, Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said the force had received about 22,000 calls about violence against women and girls over an 11-month period.

He said there seemed to be an "acceptance around misogyny" which he had not seen before, pointing to what he called the "abhorrent" rise of online influencers like Andrew Tate.

However, he pointed towards the practical realities of the PSNI too – a lack of funds that made it tricky to tackle the issue.

It's something raised at the SistersIN event too, with Jessica, saying: "I feel like a lot of the issue is social media and obviously the new rise of the 'red pill' and all that kind of thing amongst young men."

Beth added: "I think we need to education a lot of boys and men, especially when they're young, to sort of prevent it rather than just dealing with it after it's happened."

Nuala Lappin is a retired PSNI specialist domestic abuse officer.

"My big issue was what I called 'the bystander effect', which I've direct evidence of," she said.

"I live in not a bad area, and last year a young lady was beaten in the middle of the street and nobody did anything.

"A neighbour shouted, but nobody lifted the phone to ring 999... Why are people afraid to lift the phone and the ring the police?"

Nuala generalised that there are two types of abusive men: "The charismatic man who everybody loves but in the house is the devil, then there is the outward bully that everybody is afraid of."

There are many barriers that prevent abused women going to the police, but Nuala said two of the most salient are a fear of provoking reprisals by their abuser, and also a reluctance to share "some of the most personal, intimate details of your life with somebody you don't know".

She suggested the introduction of "independent domestic violence advocates".

"We need a buffer between victims and the police, because most are coming in and they don't really understand what the law allows, and maybe the advocates could be that buffer that could attend police stations with victims, who could explain the court process."

With plans in place for education and enforcement, but perhaps no money to implement them fully, where does that leave women in Northern Ireland?

Could it be that as people move on from the legacy of the violent past, women will continue to deal with violence in their present and future?

That question played on the minds of attendees at a conference on violence against women and girls in Coleraine.

Leigh O'Hara was there, Her organisation, White Ribbon NI, works to stop that violence.

"I think the statistics are scary, but it's always been there. It's always been in the background," she said.

She said that stopping the violence means tackling the "thoughts and beliefs" that lead to harmful behaviour from men towards women. That means engaging with men – young and old – in every space. From schools to sports clubs to prisons.

"We can't just keep putting out these fires, we need to get to the root causes and work from there."

Or as Jessica, one of those teenagers at the SistersIN event, put it.

"It's not up to the girls to know how to protect themselves. It's up to the men to know not to do it."