Northern Ireland & The Rise of Femicide
By Conor Mallon
More Than Just a Number
In 2020, Women’s Aid led by Karen Ingala-Smith published a report on UK femicides committed in 2018. The report showed that out of 149 women killed in the UK in 2018, 147 of these murders were committed by men. 91 women (61%) were killed by a current or former partner. In 52% of cases the perpetrator had a previous history of violence towards women. [1]
30 women have been killed in Northern Ireland since 2020. All but one of these murders were committed by men. In 21 of the cases, the killer or suspect was well-known to the woman. [2]. This is not just a statistic but rather a glaringly obvious example of a deeply torn island with a persistent problem of gender-based violence.
Amy Doherty & Natalie McNally
Amy Doherty was murdered on Saturday the 21st of March in Derry/Londonderry in her home in Summer Meadow Mews. Connor McNamee (30) has been charged with the 28-year-old’s murder and will appear in court on April 23rd. McNamee was also charged with possession of an offensive weapon, and possession of a class A drug. [3]. The court heard that the charge is aggravated by reason of involving domestic abuse.
On the 18th of December 2022, Natalie McNally (32) was stabbed to death in her home in Lurgan, County Armagh. Her boyfriend, Stephen McCullagh (36) from Lisburn, was charged with and later convicted of her murder after initially claiming he had been live streaming on YouTube at the time of the killing. The conviction only actually coming into fruition on the 23rd of March 2026. [4]. During the trial, under cross-examination by defence barrister John Kearney KC, a former partner of McNally’s admitted he had been recently arrested for threatening violence towards a former girlfriend via WhatsApp, which he attributed to “a load of slabbering”.[5]. This man was used as a distraction of blame from McCullagh from his defence team, who also brought into contention his erasure of phone data due to supposedly incriminating messages regarding recreational drugs.
Media Coverage
On the 21st of December 2022 ITV news published an article regarding the murder with the headline “Pregnant Natalie McNally killed in violent attack in her Lurgan home, say police”, with the first sentence reading as “Police have revealed murder victim Natalie McNally was 15 weeks pregnant when she was killed in her home”. [6]. On the 23rd of March the BBC established a timeline surrounding the trial of McCullagh in which they produced a personal profile on McNally entitled Who was Natalie McNally? Their answer to this question, a woman who was “15 weeks pregnant with a baby boy when she died at her home in Lurgan, County Armagh, on 18 December 2022, aged 32.” [7]. Rather than address the societal problems within the UK and especially in Northern Ireland that promotes a culture of socially acceptable violence and perceived justification of the persecution of women,.these media outlets would prefer to reduce McNally to the role of a mother. They strip her of her own humanity and actively undermine the legitimacy of the violence and abuse exacted upon her.
The BBC in their continued virtuosity published an article on the 25th of March with the title “Amy Doherty murder suspect medically unfit for interview” [8]. In this shameful and sorry excuse for political change they not only dehumanise Doherty into the domestic sphere by making constant reference to her two children but also keep the identity of her obvious killer hidden. She is stripped of her individuality and blame is avoided.
Blame?
The news outlets whilst flawed in their coverage cannot bear sole responsibility for the societal problems that permit masculine power to be abused and exerted over the female individual. The corrupt UK judicial system would rather protect the names of killers and murderers than naming them and addressing the horrors of their actions. The UK government would rather afford privacy to potential murderers and rapists than look after the safety of its citizens.
Northern Ireland exists in a liminal space in which the actual horrors of violence seem to be normalised. Citizens possess passive ideologies towards murder, with actual loss being diminished to nothing but a number. On the 9thof June 2025, riots broke out across Northern Ireland after two Romanian speaking Roma teenagers were charged with the attempted rape of a teenage girl in Ballymena. [9] These riots and the problems in Northern Ireland can be easily broken down. The media and politicians are directly responsible for enacting and perpetuating xenophobia by creating and disseminating content that fosters fear and distrust. Regular citizens would rather ascribe themselves and others into in-groups (us) and out-groups (them) than perform some much-needed self-reflection and see how such heavy reliance on ‘tradition’ and hegemonic norms of determinators such as religion, gender etc. cause deep-rooted hatred and allow for the societal acceptance of violence against those less fit to physically look after themselves. No riots have occurred following the murder of Doherty. Northern Irish citizens displaying a preference of racism over fostering peace.
Desensitization to violence is a Northern Irish problem that needs to be changed. Education needs to change to ensure the protection of all human beings and crush the rising growth of incel-driven toxic masculinity. The judicial system and the PSNI need to undergo major reform to enact change. Northern Irish justice seems to be slow and very inconsistent. Northern Ireland exists within an extremely difficult historical political position;however, we should learn from the past and ensure the safety of all Northern Irish inhabitants. Religion was used as a means for sectarianism and within this sectarianism there was a distinct misogyny, that is still all too present in modern society.
References
[1] “Over Half of UK Women Killed by Men Die at Hands of Partner or Ex.” 2020. The Guardian. February 20, 2020. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/feb/20/over-half-of-uk-women-killed-by-men-die-hands-current-ex-partner.
[2] News, RTÉ. 2026. “Gender-Based Violence Extremely High in NI – Women’s Aid.” RTE.ie, March. urn:epic:1564905.
[3] News, ITV. 2026. “Man Appears in Court Charged with Amy Doherty’s Murder in Londonderry on Saturday.” ITV News. March 27, 2026. https://www.itv.com/news/utv/2026-03-27/man-charged-with-amy-doherty-murder-in-londonderry.
[5] Morris, Allison. 2026. “Natalie McNally’s Ex-Partner ‘Wiped Phone due to Enormous Bag of Weed in His House’, Trial Hears.” Independent.ie. Irish Independent. March 10, 2026. https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/courts/natalie-mcnallys-ex-partner-wiped-phone-due-to-enormous-bag-of-weed-in-his-house-trial-hears/a994663218.html.
[6] News, ITV. 2022. “Pregnant Natalie McNally Killed in Violent Attack in Her Lurgan Home, Say Police.” ITV News. December 21, 2022. https://www.itv.com/news/utv/2022-12-21/murder-victim-killed-in-violent-attack-was-15-weeks-pregnant-police-say.
[4][7] BBC News. n.d. “Natalie McNally: Stephen McCullagh Found Guilty of Murdering His Pregnant Partner.” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c3w3qdd3zw5t.
[8] BBC News. 2026. “Murder Suspect in Amy Doherty Case Medically Unfit for Police Interview,” March 25, 2026. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp8dnj8v831o.
[9] “Teenagers Accused of Attempted Rape in Incident Which Led to Ballymena Riots to Have Charges Withdrawn.” 2025. Sky News. Sky. November 28, 2025. https://news.sky.com/story/teenagers-accused-of-attempted-rape-in-incident-which-led-to-ballymena-riots-to-have-charges-withdrawn-13476547.
