And that motivation should also be felt by men. Sadly it’s not.

We are at a decisive moment in this lifetime right now where societal norms are being challenged like never before, but unfortunately the one great culture that needs serious fostering is the one that honours and protects women.

We have convinced ourselves to believe that society has come a long way since the days of the caveman and his club, and how, after clubbing a woman over the head a couple of times, he would drag her by her hair back to his cave, where he would subject her to a terrifying ordeal.

Of course, the caveman with his club has always been regarded as a myth, good for cheap sniggers on a lads' night out, nothing more than a prehistoric fable that exists alongside dragons and vampires. Or is he a myth?

Give him a neat haircut, get rid of the beard, dress him up in jeans and shirt, smart jacket and shoes, a whiff of aftershave. He looks nothing like the caveman; but what if he turns on a woman, his fist becomes his club, and he reins down blow after blow until she lies unconscious on the ground, or until her eye socket has been irreparably damaged and her face disfigured? The caveman is far from a myth, as we have seen in recent times. He’s very real.

According to the theory of teleology, society is getting better, our lives and how we interact with others are constantly improving, to a point where we’re finally drawing close to states such as gender equality. 

Except we’re not, and we’re fooling ourselves if we believe we are. Gender violence is far worse now than it has been in living memory. When men see violence against women as something to brag about, we’re back in the cave, living among savages.

“Two to put her down, two to put her out,” was how convicted soldier Cathal Crotty bragged on social media shortly after he had savagely beaten Natasha O’Brien unconscious. Crotty’s father partly blames the media for intensifying the country’s anger towards his son.

O’Brien described how Crotty “held me like a punching bag almost ... until I eventually fell to the ground.”

 Her attacker was handed a three-year suspended sentence by Judge Tom O’Donnell.

David O’Gorman, a member of the Irish Navy, an accomplished heavyweight boxer, is also still employed after he pleaded guilty last summer to savagely assaulting a woman he knew. He pulverised his victim, punching her with both hands to the head at least five to 10 times, leaving her bleeding from her right eye. Judge Tom O’Donnell was on the bench that day. He handed down a suspended sentence to O’Gorman.

I got the sense last week that the fury over the suspended sentence handed down to Crotty was in danger of minimising the shocking barbarity of his attack on a young woman he’d never met before.

His sickening jibe on social media clearly shows a mind that is both devious and remorseless. Violence and its life-long trauma is far worse than any sentence.

Crotty’s superior officer Commander Paul Togher described him in court as “exemplary”, “courteous”, “professional”, and “disciplined” in his conduct — character traits that will never again be attributed to him. Togher also stated that members of the Defence Forces were “expected to keep people safe”. I would have thought that it was first and foremost the job of the Defence Forces to ensure that those they recruit were safe.

Wayne Couzens was a serving British police officer in March 2021 when he abused his power to lure 33-year-old marketing executive Sarah Everard to her death. Couzens abducted, raped, and murdered Everard. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars. His case exposed the scale of largely unpunished misogyny and abuse not just within the British police force, but also in other organisations where offenders are employed.

Can gender violence aimed at women be prevented? Not if we continue to think that conversations about respect for women will stop it. They won’t. It’s a sad and shocking fact that no prevention strategy exists to protect women against violence from men, whether they know the men or not.

It’s difficult not to be tempted to call out contradictory beliefs whenever we hear platitudes being dusted off and rolled out, such as: “Everyone has a role to play”, or “We need to have better conversations with our sons”; or worse: “My son would never do that.” He might.

Our Defence Forces are once again in the spotlight, and deservedly so. Power is a mighty sword, as is coercive control. When mixed with misogyny, you have a lethal determinant — a ticking timebomb. Women who are assaulted should never be judged or blamed, it’s men who deserve the finger-pointing and the shame.

A suspended sentence for a man who left a young woman out cold on the street after beating her unconscious — the same man who makes a living wearing a Defence Forces uniform — makes a mockery of how the legal system should view women.

It also sends out a sign that if you can be described by your peers as being of exemplary standing, your chances of walking out of court increase.

Until we start to see these Neanderthal savages for what they are, then we can never say with hand on heart that we respect women. Many men respect women but these days that’s not good enough.

It’s vital that the crime of abject violence directed at women must never be minimised in our society just because the defendant is a great soldier or sportsman.

Any man who sets out to attack and hurt a woman deserves a long stretch in prison, not a suspended sentence. Courtrooms should be for victim impact statements, not character references. There’s a very real sense that patriarchy is alive and well, and gender inequality is seen by many as normal. It’s not, and it must not be allowed to continue.