We are so proud of the members of the members of our community who gathered at the Tyneside Irish Centre on Sunday (16/1/22) to hold a vigil in memory of Ashling Murphy. She played here in 2018 as part of the Echoes of Erin evening. So talented a woman and one who should have had her whole life to look forward to.
Dr Sarah Campbell, lecturer at Newcastle University and a TIC board member, spoke for all of us:
“I wish my reaction was shock but unfortunately it is not. It was exhaustion and weariness that another woman has been murdered at the hands of a man for just going about her everyday business.
“I think what was shocking is that all of us can put ourselves in Ashling’s shoes [and think] ‘I’ve gone for runs, I’ve gone for walks by myself.’ We are constantly vigilant but that doesn’t seem to matter. We can take all the precautions in the world, but it doesn’t matter.
And I think that is what has really hit home – that there is a kind of inevitability of male violence. “It’s just exhaustion and there is a weariness about it.”
“We know that it is not all men, but equally it is always men and it is all women and that is the problem. “This is not an attack on men, but it is asking them to really think about their interactions with other men. “[That] when people tell misogynistic jokes or when people catcall women they don’t just standby silently. “To be silent is to be complicit and we need to start calling some of that stuff out.”
Her words and pictures of the vigil can be found on YouTube