Today, the Dáil passed the Domestic Violence (Judgements) Register Bill 2026 — known to all of us as Jennie’s Law. The bill now goes to President Catherine Connolly to be signed. For so many of us who have followed this campaign, watched it, shared it, hoped for it, this is a day that has been a long, long time coming.

It is also, without question, overdue.

Remembering Jennifer

Jennifer Poole was 24 years old. A mother of two. Loved fiercely by her family and her community in Finglas. In April 2021, she was murdered in her own home by her ex-partner, Gavin Murphy, who beat and stabbed her to death. He pleaded guilty to her murder and is now serving a life sentence.

What makes Jennifer’s story impossible to let go of — what should make it impossible for any of us to let go of — is this, Murphy had a prior conviction for domestic violence against a former partner. Jennifer never knew. She was never given the chance to know. If she had, her family believe, she would never have stayed with him. She would have had the information she needed to protect herself. Instead, the system that should have protected her said nothing, and she paid for that silence with her life.

A Brother’s Fight

I remember hearing Jennifer’s brother, Jason Poole, speak at an International Women’s Day march not long after her murder. He spoke about his beautiful sister — not as a statistic, not as a headline, but as a person, a sister, a daughter, a mother. And he spoke about the unbearable thought that has driven him ever since, that this didn’t have to happen. That if Jennifer had known what he knew, she would still be here.

Out of that grief, a campaign was born. Jason has said he wants to spare the next family the devastation his own family has lived through every day since. He has said this fight keeps him going, that it is Jennifer’s legacy, because “the system let her down and they are letting down women every day.” He has said his family will never stop fighting for her.

This has been a hard, hard road. Years of campaigning. Years of petitions and meetings and testimony. Years of having to relive the worst day of your life, over and over, in front of politicians and journalists and rooms full of strangers, because that was what it took to get this over the line. We can never underestimate the tireless work that Jason Poole and the wider Poole family have put in to get this legislation passed. This is their win. It is also, heartbreakingly, Jennifer’s.

What Jennie’s Law Actually Does

Under the new law, a Domestic Violence Register will be established and managed by the Courts Service. Anyone convicted on indictment of a serious domestic violence offence against a partner or former partner can be named on the register — with the trial judge given discretion to publish details of the conviction, and with victims required to give their consent before an abuser is named.

For the first time, someone starting a new relationship — or thinking about starting one — will have a way of finding out whether their partner has a history of serious domestic violence convictions. Women will have information. Women will have choices. For too long, men with histories of violence have faced no lasting consequence beyond a sentence served quietly and a clean slate handed back to them the moment they walked free. Now there is a public record. Now there is a way for the rest of us to make informed decisions about who we let into our lives, our families, our businesses, our communities.

It won’t undo what happened to Jennifer. Nothing can. But it may mean another family is spared the phone call the Pooles received. It may mean another woman gets to walk away before it’s too late.

The Work Isn’t Finished

Every piece of legislation like this chips away at the culture that has allowed men’s violence against women to go unchecked for so long. But a register is not the whole answer. It has to sit alongside proper risk assessment, proper safety planning, and real resourcing for the gardaí and frontline services who will be relied on to make this work in practice — so that the burden of safety never falls back onto the victim herself.

We have to keep demanding more. For our mothers. Our daughters. Our sisters. Our friends. Our nieces. For every woman and child who deserves to move through this world free from violence and fear, without having to fight for it, without having to become a campaign, without having to become a name attached to a law.

Jennifer Poole should be 29 years old today. She should be raising her children. Instead, her name will be attached to a piece of legislation that might just save someone else’s daughter, someone else’s sister.

Let this be the start of something greater — not the end of the conversation, but the beginning of real, sustained, structural change.

To Jason Poole and the entire Poole family: thank you for turning grief into something that will protect others. And to everyone who works, every single day, to keep women and children safe — thank you. This fight belongs to all of you now.

Jennie’s Law now awaits signature by President Catherine Connolly before it is formally enacted.

If you or someone you know is experiencing any form of abuse, domestic, gender based or sexual violence please reach out to Women’s Aid.

• Ireland — Women’s Aid 24-Hour National Freephone Helpline: 1800 341 900, or womensaid.ie
• Northern Ireland – Women’s Aid 028 9024 9041 or website for all local numbers HERE
• UK — National Domestic Abuse Helpline: 0808 2000 247

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