A mother-of-two killed in Mallow, Co Cork last Friday became the first woman killed in Ireland this year, sparking renewed discussions about femicide and gender-based violence across the country.
Paula Canty was the 271st woman to meet a violent death here since 1996 according to Women's Aid.
The sister of another of those women, Jenna McMonagle, says "a lot needs to be done" to address this problem.
Having recently marked the sixth anniversary of her sister Jasmine’s death, Jenna McMonagle says more needs to be done to tackle femicide in Ireland.
Mother-of-two Jasmine McMonagle was strangled with a rope and severely beaten in her home in Co Donegal in the early hours of 4 January, 2019.
Richard Burke of Killygordon, Co Donegal was found not guilty of murder but guilty of the manslaughter of Jasmine on the grounds of diminished responsibility.
The judge imposed a 15-year sentence, suspending the final year, on condition that he undergo psychiatric assessment and remain under post-release supervision for five years.
Jasmine McMonagle’s sister Jenna told Katie Hannon on Upfront: The Podcast that her sister’s killing six years ago had a "devastating impact" on their entire family.
While she finds it difficult to talk about, Jenna feels it is important that people speak up for those who cannot.
"I think if people aren’t talking about it then nothing will change. People need to know what’s the reality of this," Jenna said.
"I know if it was the other way around – if it was me and it was Jasmine that was here – she would be out there talking for me. So, I have to speak for her," she added.
WATCH: Monday’s Upfront with Katie Hannon’s discussion on gender-based violence on the RTÉ Player
Jenna says one of her motivations for continuing to speak about her sisters killing is the hope that by speaking it can drive change.
"There’s so many angles that people need to come at this from. A lot needs to be done for things to change. This is happening on a regular basis," Jenna said.
Since 1996, 271 women have been killed in Ireland according to Women’s Aid Femicide Watch.
71% of the women killed between 2014 and 2019 were killed by their current or former male partner or husband, according to a Government report on Familicide & Domestic and Family Violence Death Reviews.
One area Jenna thinks needs addressing if the situation is to be improved is the involvement of men and particularly younger men in the conversation around gender-based violence.
"Who are the people who are really going to be able to speak to teenage boys?" Jenna asked.
"It’s going to be other men to be able to get into the mindset of these young people and maybe help them express their feelings," Jenna added.
Jenna also believes that these types of conversations have to happen at the earliest appropriate stage.
"Teenagers need to be spoken to from a certain age, boys and girls. Get girls to look out for the red flags [with] boys being spoken to by other men, telling them what’s right, what’s not right and how to control their emotions," Jenna said.
Jenna also says that women in their twenties should be especially aware of potential dangers.
'Amazing mother’
Prior to her death, Jenna says her sister Jasmine had big ambitions for her life.
"She really wanted to be a writer - she was often writing stories and poems," Jenna said.
"She'd done a little bit of modelling as well. The press picked up on that quite a bit, but I think writing was her main passion and she was an amazing mother as well," Jenna added.
Jasmine had been in an on-off relationship with the man who killed her for around two years and Jenna says her family didn’t hold any serious concerns about the relationship.
"They hadn't been together for quite a long time. She'd had a baby with him and they weren't together after that. But then they got back together, and a few months [after] they’d been back together, everything happened." Jenna said.
"I had been living away for a few years before it happened, and I had met him once or twice... It was never something that occurred to me that something like this could happen. There was the normal things you would hear from relationships and, you know, he had his issues, but nothing like that," Jenna added.
The trial
Jenna said the trial, which took a number of years to come to a conclusion, felt like "a blow to the brain".
"When the trial comes along, and then you have to sit and listen to things in graphic detail that you’ve never heard before, it’s so traumatic," Jenna said.
"In the trial I just remember I thought, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to be able to move past this’. But then you just start to carry on again - and you do carry on with your life but you’re never going to be the same," Jenna added.
Jenna says such trials impact on every aspect of your life.
"It impacts your sleep, impacts your memory – there’s so many parts of your life that it can really, really damage," Jenna said.
While the pandemic was a factor in the long trial wait, Jenna says the delays were hard to take.
"I think we had three or four years wait. Of course, it was during the time of Covid, so that was a factor with backlogs. But then there'd be situations where you'd be ready to go and you're told, ‘OK, this trial is going to happen’ and you have to really psych yourself up," Jenna said.
The impact of these killings and their subsequent trials can have long-reaching consequences for the families’ affected according to Jenna, who says more supports should be made available.
"Whenever something like this happens you get an overwhelming amount of people coming, offering this and that, at the start. You’ll have doctors coming to you, you’ll have people offering some free therapy sessions for a certain amount of time, different things," Jenna said.
"But when the dust settles there’s not a lot there and you kind of have to go looking for things yourself. I was on a waiting list for some counselling myself and in the end, I never heard back," she added.
Eventually, Jenna ended up engaging with the Donegal Women’s Centre who she says provided "brilliant help."
Jenna says many people in similar situations often don’t know where to go or who to turn to.
"There's not a lot there. You just don’t know where to go or who to turn to," Jenna said.
‘Big challenge’
Jenna, who is guardian to one of her sister’s two young children, says her niece now thinks of her as a second mother.
"She doesn’t know all the details as of yet, she’s still very young but she knows she has Mummy Jasmine and now she calls me Mummy Jenna," Jenna said.
"She knows that I was her auntie but now I’m like her second mummy. She’s very switched on and I know it’s going to be a big challenge going forward, but I have every faith that she’s going to grow up to be an amazing girl.
"She’s very like her Mum".
If you have been affected by issues raised in this article, you can get information at rte.ie/helplines
Listen to Jenna McMonagle speaking to Katie Hannon on Upfront: The Podcast here, on Apple Podcasts and on Spotify.
Watch Upfront with Katie Hannon on Monday at 10.35pm on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player.
