Dead women: What they can teach us about murder in the Republic of Ireland

Introduction

Ireland is a small island with a long, dark past especially when it comes to its female citizens. But gradually those long-buried secrets of the past are emerging into the light of a new country. A country whose social, political and economic landscape has changed dramatically in the last thirty years. As the country has moved on from burying its latest murder victim, the 23-year-old schoolteacher Ashling Murphy, who was strangled to death in broad daylight in January 2022, and with the grief and horror of the event subsiding, many questions remain unanswered – how and why could such a thing happen in a quiet rural town? But the sad truth is women and girls have been getting murdered in Ireland for decades – the only difference now is it is more widely reported and seized upon. But it also prompts the question: how much do we really know about female homicide in Ireland beyond the lurid headlines? By examining past cases of homicide this allows for trends and similarities in killings to emerge.

Cause of death and motive

In a review of female homicide using newspaper and court reports, it was possible to investigate the cause of death and motives in over 200 cases. During the last 30 years 240 women and girls have been murdered in Ireland, ranging in age from 13 to 88 years of age. All these women were going about their daily lives just as Ashling Murphy was on that fateful afternoon. Just as those murdered women can teach us about the past, their deaths can also play a role in the investigation of homicides in this country. Each of those unlawful deaths occurred as a result of stalking, harassment, domestic abuse, the breakdown of a marriage/relationship, financial gain and deteriorating mental health. This is reflecting the situation right across Europe. In nearly all the cases these women had their lives ended by the people they most trusted – husbands, partners, ex-partners, sons, grandsons and friends.

By studying these past cases distinct patterns emerge regarding the causes of death, the level of violence, the age of the victim and the perpetrator, the motives and the forms of evidence used to build a case. Strangulation was the principal cause of death in a quarter of cases with manual and ligature the most common methods. Some of the perpetrators had a history of employing non-fatal strangulation, often during consensual rough sex. The prevalence of strangulation of women during assaults and/or sex is of serious concern, and this is reflected in the decision by the UK government to outlaw the so called “rough sex” or fifty shades of grey defence in England and Wales last year.

The second most common cause of death was stabbing with a knife; the three main sites of impact were the face, neck and torso. This was followed by blunt force injuries from a variety of objects such as lump hammers, wheel braces, tabletops, chair legs, concrete blocks, stones, fists and feet. Guns were used in fifteen cases; interestingly, the victims who were shot were older women in rural areas killed by family members (sons, grandsons) and in the cases of murder–suicides, their husbands.

There were nine cases of fire – eight to conceal the original crime and one act of arson resulting in the deaths of three elderly women on the Arran Islands. Two cases of drowning both involved alcohol and drugs as a precursor. One case resulted in death from caustic soda and one case of poisoning.

Some other points worth noting are that the younger the perpetrator the more disorganised and frenzied the attack is likely to be. In victims aged between their twenties and the late forties, the predominant motive was jealousy and fear of the victim leaving, whereas in the older age groups motives were more likely to be financial or due to mental illness and the victims were more often beaten to death, shot or stabbed rather than strangled. By contrast, in the younger age groups strangulation was the primary cause of death.

But what almost all these women have in common is that their deaths were not random and that they were nearly always killed by someone known to them. It is this fact that makes murder so mysterious and complex, and which fascinates the wider public. It is easier to understand and make sense of a killing if it is carried out by a random stranger rather than by a member of your own family or community.

Investigation of homicide has evolved over the decades with the development and advancement of DNA and scientific and technological advancements in other areas. The three forms of evidence now considered the most important in achieving a conviction are DNA, mobile phone tracing and CCTV. In a surprising number of cases the perpetrator calls the emergency services and confesses to the crime. Murder is both an ordinary and extraordinary crime: it shows us how criminal justice has developed, how criminal law in Ireland has changed throughout the centuries to accommodate its evolution from a mere fine under Brehon law in the 14th century to life imprisonment today. Criminal law is a complicated beast, and it needs to keep evolving to keep pace with the development in society, never more so than now.

Conclusions

Of the many cases reviewed some have received much media attention over the years and inspired books, films and documentaries, but the majority of women killed in Ireland in the last 30 years have remained deadly silent and just another annual statistic. But if we look more closely their deaths tell us a very different story and inform us how they lived, how they were treated by others and how and why they died. How we interpret the clues these women leave behind may help to save another woman’s life in future. There is a need to understand the crimes of the past to better understand the crimes of today and tomorrow and which changes in the criminal justice system have helped or hindered women and how the evolution of homicide, homicide investigation and changes in the law have impacted on women’s lives in Ireland.