Candlelit vigil held following murder of Karen Cummings in Co Down

A candlelit vigil in memory of the seventh woman murdered in Northern Ireland this year has heard that "enough is enough".

Karen Cummings, 40, who was a children's nurse, was found unconscious at a house in Banbridge last weekend and died a short time later.

Police said the mother of two suffered a head injury. Two men appeared in court earlier this week charged with her murder and were remanded in custody.

Crowds of people turned out for a vigil in memory of Ms Cummings at Solitude Park in Banbridge on Thursday evening.

Banners bearing the names of the 25 women killed in the region since 2020 were held up during the event which was organised by Women's Aid Armagh and Down and a moment of silence was held in their memory.

The organisation's chief executive, Eileen Murphy, urged that more be done by government to tackle violence against women and girls.

"Seven women, and the year isn't over yet, have been murdered in Northern Ireland," she said.

"What we want is to urge the government for real and proper action because if we don't, we will continue to lose mothers and sisters, wives, daughters to perpetrators of violence."

Noel McNally, father of Natalie McNally who was pregnant when she was murdered in Lurgan, Co Armagh in December 2022, also addressed the gathering.

"When we heard about Karen's brutal murder, it just brought it back to us what happened to our Natalie two years ago this week and we know exactly what Karen's family is going through," he said.

"We are heartbroken for them, but I know all you here tonight coming to support Karen's family, how much comfort they will get from that because the comfort we got from people coming out to support us when Natalie died was absolutely fantastic.

"Violence against women and girls in Northern Ireland has to come to an end."

Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon deputy mayor Kyle Savage said enough was enough.

"We gather together here in sorrow, in remembrance and in solidarity to honour the life of Karen Cummings," he said.

"This should not have happened to her and we hope by taking a stand such as this tonight that hopefully the message will be loud and clear that this cannot happen again.

"The violence that women face in our society can no longer be ignored or tolerated, every woman has the right to feel safe and live free from the fear of harm.

"To Karen's family and loved ones, our hearts are with you in this unimaginable moment of grief.

"We mourn with you, we will continue to demand change. Let this be the moment when we say loud and clear, enough is enough, violence against women must end."

Earlier on Thursday following a meeting of the Stormont Executive, First Minister Michelle O'Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly said ministers had discussed with alarm the fact that seven women had been murdered in Northern Ireland in 2024, and their strategy to end violence against women and girls.

"That's not acceptable by anybody's standards but it also highlights that we have a deep-rooted problem in society, that there's a huge amount of work to do, and it's not down to one body, one government department, one entity to fix this," Ms O'Neill said.

She said preventative work is "vitally important".

Ms Little Pengelly added that the Executive wants to send a "really clear message about the unacceptability of the levels of violence against women and girls and all violence overall".

"We're absolutely dismayed by the most recent murder, as First Minister said, that is the seventh this year. It is a challenge everywhere. The levels are particularly high in Northern Ireland. That is why we moved to publish this strategy along with the delivery plan," she said.

"And of course, our thoughts are with the family and all of those families of those women who have been killed this year but we are determined going into next year to ramp this up in terms of our focus on this very, very tragic issue."