they were found not guilty so that is the result of the judicial system whatever the public thoughts on it. I thought this following message which is doing the rounds in Facebook is good:
On the Belfast rape trial: I read and listened to the print and broadcast media reports daily to try and be as informed as possible. No-one other than those on the jury can know the interpretations and rationale underpinning acquittals and/or not guilty verdicts. What we can all know as fact though, are the messages these men sent to each other, the language they used, the attitude they displayed, the behaviour they described. Toward this woman. Toward women in general. These are not open to debate, these are fact, admitted by the defendants in court. All of it was outrageous. All of it was disgraceful. All of it was absolutely, inarguably unacceptable. It was not immaturity, or drunkenness, or ‘the lads’. It was abuse. It was misogyny. It was the inverse of being a man.
As a father, as a brother, as a son, most simply as a man, I object. I refuse. I condemn. You may have lost a decision in court today young woman, but you have shown these men to the world. Watching a 2017 documentary on Dr Dre & Jimmy Iovine, Dre described his assault on Dee Barnes in 1991 as ‘a major blemish on who I am as a man’. Paddy Jackson, Stuart Olding, Blaine McIlroy, Rory Harrison, you are blemished, you are stained. How you treated this woman will follow you, as it should. You owe her, her family, your family, and yourselves, the work that will be needed to fade this stain. You will never be rid of it, but you could, if you have the courage to, lessen it. Lessen it in yourselves, lessen it in other men. It will take you a lifetime. As it should.
To women; our family, our friends, or strangers… we are listening. We will be better. We will stand up and speak out. We will see you, and hear you, and work to protect you when other men threaten you. Keep pushing us, keep waking us. We love you, as women, as people. We can often be weak, and afraid, but we are working to be stronger, to be your equal.
By David O'Donovan