{"id":917952,"date":"2026-04-25T16:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T16:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/917952\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T16:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T16:41:09","slug":"a-scourge-upon-this-society-brother-of-natalie-mcnally-addresses-belfast-rally-against-femicide-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/917952\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cA scourge upon this society\u201d: Brother of Natalie McNally addresses Belfast rally against femicide \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The brother of murder victim Natalie McNally<\/a> was among the speakers at a rally against gender violence in Belfast on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The number of femicides in Northern Ireland since 2020 reached 30 last month, following the murder of 28-year-old Amy Doherty in Derry.<\/p>\n

Organised by the feminist group ROSA NI, large crowds marched behind the \u2018Not One More\u2019 rally from the courts at Chichester Street to Belfast City Hall.<\/p>\n

\"ABrendan McNally, brother of Natalie McNally addresses the rally at Belfast City Hall on Saturday afternoon. PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\n

Speaking at the rally, Brendan McNally said: \u201cNatalie was one of 30 women in Northern Ireland who have lost their lives since 2020. The 30 women we are here to honour today.<\/p>\n

\"‘Most<\/a>\"Travel<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a rate of femicide that is a scourge upon this society.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach case shows its own terrible circumstances, but we must look to the greater themes that they as a whole reveal.<\/p>\n

\"AMarchers hold posters of the 30 women killed in Northern Ireland since 2020. PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very much a male issue and time and time again we see the same behaviours and mentalities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr McNally continued: \u201cGoing forward, we must invigorate education, raise voices and continue to support the women-led movements for justice and change and continue to ask the good people of Northern Ireland to do the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MembersMembers of Natalie McNally’s family took part in a large rally against gender violence and femicide in Belfast on Saturday afternoon. PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\n

Sonya McMullan from Women\u2019s Aid also spoke at the rally, calling on the NI Assembly to have a specific offense for femicide. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe demand a full life term of imprisonment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need zero tolerance and we owe it to each and every woman in the whole island of Ireland, for all of those women who have died, for their families, for their loved ones, their sisters, their daughters, their mothers, their grandmothers.<\/p>\n

\"AA large rally against gender violence and femicide took place in Belfast on Saturday afternoon. PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to have to stand here anymore and see families and be at vigils.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to take a zero tolerance and each and every one of you need to use your voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other speakers at the event included Mel Bradley from Alliance For Choice Derry, Hazel Behan from the organisation \u00c9ist and Fiona Ferguson from People Before Profit.<\/p>\n

\"AA large rally against gender violence and femicide took place in Belfast on Saturday afternoon. PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN \"AA large rally against gender violence and femicide took place in Belfast on Saturday afternoon. PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN \"AA large rally against gender violence and femicide took place in Belfast on Saturday afternoon. PICTURE: BRIAN LINCOLN <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The brother of murder victim Natalie McNally was among the speakers at a rally against gender violence in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":917953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[2378,1144,28263,16,15],"class_list":["post-917952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-belfast","tag-northern-ireland","tag-rally","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=917952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/917952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/917953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=917952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=917952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=917952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}