31 March 1968
Content warning: violence, misogyny.
She was my woman. As she deceived me I watched and went out of my mind. I could see that girl was no good for me. When that man drove away I was waiting. She stood there laughing. I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more. I just couldn’t take any more.
Yes indeed, swing your hips and roar along to the cheesy waltz-time oompah of another chart-topping single about a man murdering a woman within a relationship. Her name was Delilah, so those cheating womanly ways were Biblically hard-coded into her. But it’s just a song, says you: what’s a person to do? Well, not murder her; not make a cheesy song about a jealous man murdering his partner; not buy a record cartoonifying it as cabaret kitsch; not perpetuate the pernicious social and cultural trope of a good man being driven to an understandable crime of passion by a no-good woman; not sing it en masse at rugby matches; not buy similar records by Eminem. It’s hard to know, really.
Women’s Aid at the helpline 1800 341 900 and website womensaid.ie and ADAPT Kerry in my home town of Tralee at the helpline 066 712900 and website kerryrefuge.com are two organisations in Ireland who provide support for victims of domestic abuse.
