A number of women have shared their experiences about feeling unsafe on Irish streets.
It comes after a Newstalk survey found nearly nine in 10 women feel uncomfortable walking alone after dark.
Below are some of the main findings from the research:
- When asked ‘Generally, do you feel safe walking home alone after dark’, 87% said no
- 13% of women say they have been attacked after dark, with 60% saying they have been verbally harassed
- More than one in three (36%) of women say they have been followed while walking home
Over 2,700 respondents from across Ireland gave their experiences and views on walking alone at night as part of the Newstalk Breakfast survey.
Anne from Tipperary told Lunchtime Live she was not surprised by the findings.
"I felt it almost wasn't newsworthy - I think it was a marked difference between how women reacted and how men reacted.
"Men would tend to say 'God that's shocking', and women would go 'No it's not'.
"I know myself I have, over the years, have been inappropriate [sic] touched and all that kind of stuff happened many, many times over the years - as have all my friends.
"When I was younger, I did manage to prevent something that was definitely going to go much further and would have been life-changing.
"But you didn't even think about saying anything back then, because it's just so normal - so I'm unsurprised by these results".
"My feeling is that I think women are just a bit sick and tired of being on the defensive, we've been on the defensive for millennia at this point - maybe now it's time for women to go enough is enough".
Anne says she has even given her daughter a rape alarm as part of her Christmas gifts.
"I think women tend to plan - 'If I'm going home, I better plan how I'm going to go home'.
"You're planning and you're thinking ahead, and you're planning exit strategies - which thankfully the vast majority of the time you don't have to use; but it does seem a bit ridiculous in this day and age that you even have to have that.
"One of the Christmas presents that I got my daughter was a personal alarm, like a rape alarm.
"She would say she would carry keys around, as so many women learn to do, you carry one key between your second and third finger as a weapon because you can't carry a weapon.
"And that's just insane for half the population to have to do that, or feel that they have to do that".
'You have to have an exit plan'
Emer says even while running for exercise, she has an exit strategy in her head.
"I run a lot and if I'm going out for a run on my own, I think to myself about strategies and I think about the route I'm going to take.
"If I was going to go for a run before I go to work in the morning, I wouldn't - for example - go into a park to run, I wouldn't go on the canal to run.
"You always have to have an exit plan there - the problem with the canal, for example, is the exits between the canal are about a mile apart.
"And if you come across people, maybe, who are still out from the night before or a group of men or even a man on his own, immediately you're thinking 'How am I going to get out of this if this turns bad?'
"You always have to have the 'what if', you always have to think about the 'what if', and it's just a fact of life".
While Stacey says feeling unsafe is not limited to being out on the street.
"My personal experience was working in retail - and when you're packing, or I was bending over, I had a gentleman who pressed himself up against me fully erect.
"And this was in a retail shop during the day with everyone around.
"These are people that are in working and this is happening: there's young girls getting approached while they're sitting serving people forcing numbers on top of them.
"There's girls that I know personally... who leave the store but ask will someone to walk them to the bus stop, 'Is there someone going this way because I don't want to stand on my own in case so and so is out there'.
"It happens in broad daylight, it happens in front of people, it happens every day of the week.
"I'm not saying it happens every day of the week here where we are, but it has happened... and there's more occurrences of it happening.
"You shouldn't have to be in your workplace, working away, minding your own business, doing your job - and the next [minute] you've got four hands going around your waist and... they think it's funny".
