Noelle Finegan: 'It's that unsettling feeling that it could be any one of us'

She went for a run....a young, talented, schoolteacher with her whole life ahead of her, doing something many of us do on a regular basis without even thinking about it. It was 4pm in the afternoon, on a popular walking path. She should have been safe, she should have come home to her family. That something like this could happen in broad daylight has shocked the country to its core.

The overwhelming sense of loss that a bright light like Ashling Murphy should be quenched when she is only at the start of life. The anger that someone could take an innocent young woman's life in such a brutal and violent way. But also the unsettling sense that it could have been any of us.

Any of us who go for a walk or a run in parks, on local greenways, on the canal towpaths, the Ramparts. Ashling didn't do anything different than any of us would. She was out for a run on a well-used route after finishing work. But she found herself fighting for her life and she never made it home. It has made women question our own safety doing things we would have done without batting an eyelid.

One thing that has come out of the pandemic, is an increased appreciation for the outdoors. When nothing else was open, when gyms and swimming pools were closed, all there was to do was go for a walk or a run. And there has been huge investment in greenways around the country including Meath. Two sections of the Navan to Nobber Greenway are open with plans well advanced for the rest. The Royal Canal greenway passes through Meath and is well used.

And plans to extend the Boyne greenway to link Oldbridge with Navan are pushing forward. All very positive developments and amenities that will no doubt be well used.

But how safe can we feel after what happened Ashling Murphy? And what can be done to make women feel safer? I regularly walk our local greenway in Nobber, usually during the day with the double buggy in tow and have never once questioned my own safety. In the evenings, I meet a friend to walk once or twice a week. It's not lit up. When there are two of us, we are hopefully safe. Would I have walked it on my own in the dark? Probably not. Would I now after what happened Ashling? No chance.

It is a long time since a story has touched people in the way Ashling Murphy's murder has.

Vigils have been held the length and breadth of the country including dozens across Meath to come together to express our sorrow for the loss of such a beautiful young woman in such horrendous circumstances and also to show our solidarity with Ashling's heartbroken family.

Minister Helen McEntee said she has always believed that we as a society will look back and ask why violence against women was tolerated for so long and promised a national strategy to tackle domestic, sexual and gender based violence within weeks with the goal of zero tolerance. Let's hope something positive can come out of such an appalling tragedy.