Her Loyal Voice wishes to make clear that the family of the young girl called for a peaceful protest and that she has been retraumatised by the violence. We stand in solidarity with her and her family and hope they are receiving support and that their plea for the violence to stop is listened to.
The two boys accused of seriously sexually assaulting a teenage girl in Ballymena are just 14 years old. How did we get to a situation where two teenage boys thought they had the right to demand sex from a girl and use violence when she said no? The average age at which a boy in the UK views pornography for the first time is 13, 88% of that pornography is violent. Considering these two facts it is not surprising that 35% of girls in Northern Ireland have experienced sexual harassment before the age of 11, 82% by the age of 18. We are facing a pandemic of male violence against women and girls and the only way to stop it is to deradicalize young boys who have been exposed to violent misogyny. This can be achieved by compulsory, comprehensive Relationship and Sex Education in schools.
Lessons aimed at preventing violence within teenage dating and relationships reduced such violence by 17%, bystander interventions to prevent sexual assaults found that teenagers who participated in the programme were 14% less likely to be involved in a sexual assault. Outcomes can be improved further by starting RSE earlier, a systematic review of studies on the efficacy of school-based relationship and sex education found that programmes focused on safe relationships were particularly effective when delivered before the age of 13/14. The review found that schools in such programmes reported 60% less sexual violence perpetration, and 60% less physical violence perpetration with a current dating partner. We call on the Minister of Education to implement comprehensive, compulsory RSE without delay.
Male violence against women and girls is a misogyny problem, not an issue caused by immigration. Why then has the sexual assault in Ballymena resulted in a pogrom?
Emotion, particularly rage, is very effective at driving engagement on social media. Research has found that anti-immigration actors have used this aspect of social media engagement, particularly Facebook groups, to gradually normalize language and attitudes that were previously unacceptable to utter publicly. Other research looking at online constructions of British Nationalism has found that far right messaging is very effective on social media due to its simplicity and understanding of emotional targeting, but counter narratives which seek to include a broader, non-racialised understanding of British Nationalism “do not coalesce in ways [that] disrupt the dominance of right-wing anti-immigrant sentiments”. In other words, the British Left is much less effective at communicating our message than the Far Right. The power of social media algorithms coupled with politicians using migrants as scapegoats for their failure to deliver on services has proved a potent cocktail.
Another factor is the crisis of leadership within Loyalism. In 2003 Loyalism took the lead on delivering anti-racist actions in our community. Following a spate of racist attacks in South Belfast the PUP and UPRG announced an initiative aimed at ending the attacks. The UPRG leader stated ‘we will make sure [racists] are ostracized within the Loyalist Community’. That same year the PUP organized an anti-racist conference in Ballymena and Billy McCaughey of the PUP lead a door to door campaign against the presence of the Far Right in Ballymena. Where is the leadership that once stood boldly against attacks and prejudice? We need courageous and principled actions from our representatives, instead Causeway Coast and Glens Councillor Russel Watton’s statement on the violence in Coleraine makes no mention of the racist nature of the Ballymena pogrom and makes no reference at all to violence against women and girls. The comments of Unionist politicians Jim Allister and Gordon Lyon’s utterances on the issue have been significantly worse than Watton’s. Comparing the actions of the PUP in the early 2000s with those today it is clear the Loyalist community has lost confidence in ourselves to chart our own path politically. We need to boldly recapture our radicalism and our space in the progressive left.
As Loyalist women we believe the Union must provide material wellbeing and Equal Citizenship for all who call these islands home. As such we utterly condemn the racist violence in Ballymena, the impact it has had on our neighbours from black and migrant communities, and the deadening effect It has had on a much-needed conversation about men and boys’ violence towards women and girls. We reiterate our commitment to anti-racism and to ending violence against women and girls. You can find out more about Loyalist anti-racism here and here.
