But when the outlier in question is sexual violence, we greet it with a collective shrug. If we’re one of the lucky ones who has not directly experienced sexual violence, we almost certainly know someone who has. Sexual violence hasn’t been hiding in plain sight – it hasn’t been hiding at all. We can make educated guesses about why the figure is so high – are Irish people more likely to report sexual violence? “Probable” and “likely” are not satisfactory words in this context but in the vast, echoing silence surrounding sexual violence, they’re all we have.

Source: The Irish Times February 09, 2026 07:02 UTC