Conclusion
The work to aid and protect women suffering from domestic violence has to be ongoing. It requires a strong, articulate, focussed agenda with committed participants across the entire community, from the national government to the voluntary sector; these include ground-breaking efforts like those of Aoibhneas. Because this is a human rights issue, the government and its statuary services must give the lead.

However, the final word on why it is so important, we leave it to the women themselves:

Why do you think there are so many refuges and why do you think the men are still in their houses? There is something wrong. Women have to come in here with their children, and uproot their whole life and take their children with them…. It's wrong when there's violence in the home, and the women have to get up and walk out, and take the children and leave, take the children out of school for weeks on end…and be in a refuge, ok, a place of safety, but your whole life is thrown completely out of gear. Your children no longer go to school, you can't think straight, your thinking of all your belongings back there which really, in a way, they're just material things, but they're yours just the same, they're a home that you've built up around those. And it's the children's home, which is more important, it's a place where they're supposed to feel safe. You know, and so there's got to be something wrong.

(Aoibhneas Resident)

Looking back on it, if I had only known then what I know now it would have been different. I am much stronger now on my own, much stronger for my children. If we hadn't split up, I would never
be the strong person I am today because of what I've learned. The strength I've got going through it and coming out the other end .
The reason I stayed in the situation was because I didn't know you could go anywhere
for help.

(Woman living on Dublin's northside)