Stephen McCullagh: The mammoth task of tackling violence against women and girls in NI

Natalie McNally is one of 30 women who have been violently and brutally killed in Northern Ireland since 2020. The conviction of her murderer, the father of her unborn son, threw an underlying issue back into the spotlight. After he was found guilty by a jury that deliberated for just over two hours, the First and Deputy First Ministers of Northern Ireland Michelle O'Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly spoke out, reiterating the need to "end violence against women and girls". For friend of Natalie, and solicitor, Sarah Creighton, it's a "mammoth task". "I don't know how you can begin to address it really, sometimes it feels quite overwhelming," she said. "But it is quite clearly obvious that Northern Ireland has a problem, a serious problem." To her, Natalie McNally was "extraordinarily kind" and "very much a woman of conviction". But the the thing she'll remember most about her is her "dark, witty sense of humour". She adored her family and animals, Creighton said. Her dog River was in the house the night she was was beaten, strangled and stabbed. Speaking to BBC News NI's Good Morning Ulster programme, Creighton said: "She was so funny, it was the one thing I always remember about her