Elaine Byrne: Culture of discrimination won’t change until men tire of it too

Women have stories about everything from biased attitudes to assault. Only men’s help will change the culture

Candles and flowers for Ashling Murphy at Leinster House: will the reaction to her death prove to be a landmark moment in Irish life? Picture: Brian Lawless

The murder of Ashling Murphy, and the vigils that followed in Ireland’s rural grottos, town squares and city streets, have become a catalyst for women to voice their anger. A national conversation has occurred about what Tom Deenihan, the Bishop of Meath, described at Ashling’s funeral as “our attitudes towards women”.

We cannot change what we cannot name, which is why the statements in the Oireachtas last week were so important. Over and over ...