Different reactions

Sunny Disposition

When a young woman died violently recently there was a huge outcry but there's nothing like the same reaction when a man was killed after his car was stolen or an older man was left at death's door following a robbery at his home? You could easily have missed those two events in the last week or so. Surely there shouldn't be a hierarchy, middle aged being killed should be as unacceptable as young women.

Of course the Ashling Murphy reaction was justified, but shouldn't there have been the same outrage following the killing of Ian McDonnell?

seamus

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome

Although the phrase itself is American in origin and has more of a racial "edge" in that context, it's still relevant. Maybe it could be better callled "missing pretty woman syndrome" or something.

Fundamental to it is the ingrained social bias which still ranks attractive middle/upper-class young women as being of a higher value than other categories of person.

It is getting better all the time, but it is obviously still there.

It's kind of unfortunate the two examples you picked. There is widespread outrage over the attack on the pensioner. It's everywhere.

The second one is a bit more fraught. He was not randomly attacked and killed. He died trying to save his property when he could have let it go. It's very tragic and absolutely does not excuse the killers for what they've done, but you can understand why there's not outrage about it. It's more of a freak incident than an act of random violence.