Three national organisations have recently joined forces for the first time to rally Irish men to become part of the solution to ending violence against women.  Rape Crisis Network Ireland, SAFE Ireland, and the Men’s Development Network will work as allies to encourage Irish men to stand up and say that violence against women is an unacceptable crime.  The new alliance and campaign, under the banner “The Other Half”, believes that the work to end violence against women can only be fully tackled by harnessing the energy, support and understanding of males in the population.  For a variety of reasons, violence against women has been largely tackled by women and has, by default, been seen as a women’s issue.  The alliance believes that it is time to move on from this, and to recognise men as potentially powerful allies in the fight against gender-based violence.  “While some men abuse women, all men can help end the violence,” said Sharon O’Halloran, Director of SAFE Ireland.  “The vast majority of men are not perpetrators of violence, and are concerned for the safety of the women they care about.  They are potentially powerful allies and activists against violence”.