Sinn Féin TD Joanna Byrne has shared a harrowing personal testimony in the Dáil, revealing her first-hand experience of the impact of domestic violence.
Deputy Byrne on Tuesday was speaking after the Minister for Justice presented the Domestic Violence Judgments Register Bill 2026 – known as Jennie’s Law to Dáil Eireann.
The bill – which was passed by the Dáil today – provides for those convicted of domestic violence offences to be included on a public register maintained by the Courts Services website, if survivors consent. The Minister said he believes “it will bring about positive change in our ongoing battle against domestic, sexual and gender-based violence.”
Deputy Byrne told the Dáil that as a child she used to sit at the top of the stairs and pray to hear her mother mam scream because it was the only way to tell if yet another beating hadn’t killed her.
“A couple of days before my tenth birthday, I came home from school to once again find my mother beaten to a pulp and our home smashed to pieces. The bravery of my mother that day changed the course of our lives forever,” she said.
“With the aid of a social care worker, we were brought to a bed and breakfast before we moved to the women’s refugee in Galway for a number of weeks while waiting for a longer term placement as the first family in the new women’s refuge in Navan, which opened a couple of months later.”
“My mam, the strongest warrior I know, left with four children and only the clothes on her back, bottles and nappies for my three brothers, who were toddlers at the time, and a Boyzone album on cassette, which was my birthday present,” she told the Dáil.
“I know first hand the impact of domestic violence on women and more broadly on families. As a nine-, eight-, seven-, six- and five-year-old girl, I used to sit at the top of the stairs and pray to hear my mam scream or cry because it was the only way I knew she was surviving another beating.”
“The only crime she committed in suffering that monstrous abuse was to fall in love and trust the man she married, the father of her three sons, and trust him to protect her and our family and not batter the life out of her. We were lucky. My mam was unbreakable. She is a survivor and we are a family of survivors.”
“Not everybody is so lucky,” Deputy Byrne said.
“As I speak today, I think of Jennifer Poole, whose brother Jason prompted this legislation in the name of Jennie’s law in the aftermath of Jennifer’s brutal murder by someone she too once loved.”
She said that her party support the introduction of a domestic violence register, because a “documented history of domestic violence is a strong indicator of future behaviour and serves as a protection to women right around this nation”.
“While I acknowledge that we have come some way in the 30 years since we had to flee from our home, I still believe we need to do more in terms of preventions and supports,” she said, “but this welcome measure with regard to a domestic violence register is reassurance for women with concerns and offers some comfort to women in a society of ever-evolving domestic and gender-based violence.”
She called for the Minister to extend the timeframe that retains somebody on the register so that an application to be removed cannot be made after three years, but only after a longer period.
