“She should still be here.” A small homemade sign, doused in candlelight during one of the many vigils for Ashling Murphy, said what was on the minds of thousands who have stood in solidarity across the island of Ireland and beyond in the past few days.
The killing of the 23-year-old schoolteacher, out for a run after class in the bright afternoon light, has been described as “random”. As her life was honoured and she was laid to rest near her home town of Tullamore today, one of her cousins offered a hope that the many vigils taking place in Ashling’s memory would “mark the beginning of an end to violence against women”.
