On average, four women every day are coming to Fermanagh Women’s Aid for help.

“That’s four stories to listen to, four horrendous stories every day,” says the FWA CEO, Mary McCann. And last year, 364 children were put on the Child Protection Register.

In her 16 years with Fermanagh Women’s Aid, Mary has seen a changing trend, with a stronger element of violence, stronger manipulation and coercive control.

Mary explains that last year, the west had the highest figures in Northern Ireland for women whose lives were in danger.

“While years ago, a worker could maybe sit with a woman and support her in staying safe in the situation, the majority of women now have to be removed in a hurry,” says Mary.

“We work on a shoestring and have a four-month waiting list. But if a women rings our door, we can’t say it’s four months. We can’t have a waiting list if a woman’s life is in danger.”

“It means the staff jiggling all the time, they have to prioritise,” adds Mary. Rurality is also an issue. In Fermanagh a FWA case worker may have to travel an hour to see someone, spend an hour with her and then an hour driving back to the office.

She admits there can still be something of a stigma or shame attached to domestic violence, but believes there is now a greater realisation that Women’s Aid are there to help, and this is something that can affect anyone.

Both Mary, and her co-worker Michelle Alonso are keen to dispel the myth that Women’s Aid is an “anti-men organisation.”

The fact is that they work closely with Men’s Action Network, which helps male victims. But the fact remains that the vast majority of victims of domestic violence are women. And men have nothing to fear from an organisation such as Women’s Aid which helps women who are going through such difficult times.