I believe there is one but many shelters won’t take in men because of the effect it may have on the families already there and potential abuses of the system by the abusive partners. There’s also only one helpline for men who have been abused and it’s not even free phone as they get little to no state funding. http://www.amen.ie

I should probably have read the rest of the comments before posting….

SONAS only deals with women and children and the article is about their facts and statistics. They don’t deal with men’s cases so they aren’t qualified to comment on them. It’s not sexist for a charity aimed solely at women and children to only talk about females in the same way that it’s not sexist if Amen or any other charity aimed solely at men to talk about how these situations are affecting them.

What about a charity that caters for all victims? Why is it an exclusively female club? It certainly isn’t an exclusively female problem! The article is very bias and makes claims like women want to keep the family together, my mother was an alcoholic, she wasn’t very concerned with keeping the family together! Interesting point about suicide Eimear, that might have been through at one time but the majority of people I know that have taken their own life are women! I’d like to see the updated statistic for recent times!

@John F. There were plans to combine shelters for male and female victims of domestic violence in the UK due to funding cuts a while ago but one of the biggest arguments was that if they had mixed facilities it could make it easier for opposite sex spouses to get access to their victims (for the same reason the location of many shelters is not made public). That’s one of the reasons they have seperate organisations for men and women.
(I tried to find the relevant article but I read it either last year or the year before and can’t find it now.)

Similarly they have different facilities and charities that cater to men’s health and women’s health seperately because men and women may have different needs.

This isn’t an issue that only affects women (NOBODY has stated that, this article is just based on a report released by an organisation for female victims – it’s not an article on domestic violence in general) – that’s why they have organisations like Amen, posted just above you…

Obviously the facilities for both men and women are seriously insufficient but turning this into a men vs women debate is not helping anybody.

@Niamh. Good point but what if the partner was the same sex?

Obviously it doesn’t solve all problems. But there are legitimate reasons to have specialist services rather than one general service. For example, there are often services which cater to immigrant and other ethnic minority women because they may have certain cultural or language considerations. Similarly, I’m a DV worker, but I wouldn’t feel qualified to handle issues regarding masculinity which may come up in services. The idea that every service should be as broad as possible just isn’t as helpful for survivors.

My point exactly! Well said

Why do men always get so offended by these type of articles? It was the same on The Journal’s recent articles about girls in developing countries and their lack of access to education and also the article about women in third world countries being disproportionately affected by poverty. Men getting on their high horses- cries of ‘but what about us?!’ Most individuals realise that the articles are based on FACT but that there are exceptions. It is a known fact that in Ireland suicide affects more men than women. If an article states that is it being unfair to women? Demeaning the situation of women affected by suicide? I personally don’t think so. It seems to me that men are a being a little over sensitive when they don’t get a mention….

Eimear, while I see your point, you are not exactly comparing like with like, saying more men than women commit suicide is a fact, but it does state that it is an issue for all people, regardless of gender.

To exclude and dismiss an already battered individual as “over sensitive” baffles me. Would people get away with that with any other victim.

There aren’t enough shelters for victims of domestic abuse, that is the fact. The article makes no reference to a group of victims, that is also a fact.

The issue is, however, that in 2012 there aren’t enough supports for family groups that have been one of the stereotypes for our culture for as long as I can remember, and that both perpetuates the stereotype and is deeply disheartening.

@eimear

Interesting view that, just dismissing the view of men.

It almost reminds me of how womens views were dismissed for so many years and no one seemed to care either until women fought for that parity of esteem that they were correctly entitled to.

@Jerry just to clarify I certaintly wasn’t suggesting in any way that victims of domestic violence are ‘over sensitive’

Since when have the Journal started swapping comment order? first comments appearing at bottom, i’ve noticed this recently!

Actually, these shelters cater for LGBT women as well, so you’re making a very hetero-normative assumption that all the perpetrators are men. Certain groups of LGBT women are actually high risk groups for domestic abuse…

As someone who has witnessed both sexes abuse each other, I have some points to make here:
1) Men are abused, too. The statistics are, however, that 3% of abuse cases reported are female to male. Granted, men may not report as readily as women, so perhaps we can assume the real number is higher, but it is still a fraction, thus lack of services for women will get more attention.
2) Whereas many men WON’T fight back if a woman attacks them, the majority of physically abused women CAN’T fight back, because the attacker is stronger.
3) Women are already economically and (still) culturally less empowered. Domestic abuse is always at least partially motivated by a desire for power over your partner. Abused women are therefore, doubly disempowered.
4) As I work in a women’s domestic violence refuge since 2007, I can confidently say that in over 500 admissions in that time, only one alleged abuse from a female partner. I can also say that only 3-5 of the calls to our helpline alleged abuse from a female to female. So, yeah, women abuse other women, but the amount of admissions to refuge do not back up the idea that this is a significant contributor to the statistics. I have, however, taken at least 2 calls in that time where a gay man rang us because his partner was beating him up. Granted, this reflects the lack of services for men, but it also balances out the stats in a sense.

I believe the idea that it is ok to abuse someone else, physically, financially or verbally/emotionally, is the root cause of the issue. It is never ok to be abusive. My heart goes out to anyone, male or female that has suffered it.
Men tend to be more likely to be violent, this is simple physiology. Men tend to feel more entitled to be in charge, this is prevalent culturally. So, whilst I am very equality orientated, the scientific facts bear out a greater need for services to support women than men.
Everytime an article like this comes out, I see men jump up and start yelling ‘what about us”. The refuge I work in was started by a couple of women who lobbied a county council for use of an unoccupied council house, to turn it into a women’s refuge. They worked like demons and fought for the resources, and they got them. There isn’t any reason men can’t do the same. Stop whining and start taking action. Stop dividing and come together against the whole damned issue.

Shame Shame Shame on you Ireland, fix this problem now.

Read the headline for f***s sake!