Madam, - While I do not doubt the good faith of correspondents on this subject, it is sad to witness the antipathy exhibited in letters about violence perpetrated by one gender on the other. Just think of how the beneficiaries of the work being done by good people view the unseemly public arguments about victim gender percentages and the affirmations and denials of details.
Could the efforts now being put into this kind of controversy be transferred into something positive, because in the long run they are achieving very little?
I suggest that an umbrella body be established with representatives from both sides in the argument in order to establish how best they can co-operate and discuss differences in private under an independent chairperson. I believe that if an organisation is dealing exclusively with one gender, it can gain valuable experience for its own clientele by sitting down with those of another organisation which deals with the other gender.
Surely anything is better than to continue ad infinitum with letters to the press which, however sincere, appear to many readers as point scoring. It is necessary to direct all energy towards dealing with violence to the person. - Yours, etc,
KF McGARRY, South Avenue, Mount Merrion, Co Dublin.