The Stalker

"I had no contact with this man. All I ever said was hello to him. It's stalking. And it builds and builds."

These are the words of my mother, Eileen Byrne. She’s going to recount her ordeal with a stalker.

I was just a kid at the time. I knew very little about it, until lately when she started talking about the incident. It was a recent Irish news story that triggered her memory. The murder of Aisling Murphy in broad daylight, sparked a national conversation not just about violence against women but also about the level of harassment and intimidation women are forced to endure on a daily basis. Aisling’s murder added fuel to a prominent campaign to make stalking a criminal offence in Ireland.