The vile bout of racism I witnessed

I WAS travelling from Limerick to Dublin last year when I heard a woman shouting racist abuse at a group of Indians.

She was upset that they had left some bags on a seat, so they removed them immediately. That wasn’t enough to save them from 20 minutes of vile, racist abuse.

She shouted at them to go back to India. When they spoke in Hindi, she told them to ‘speak f**king English’ and started imitating how they sounded to her, ‘A ta, ta, ta, ta, ta’. Everyone in the carriage could hear. I picked up my phone and started by Seán O’Driscoll recording. A man remonstrated with her. ‘Have you something to say, baldy?’ she retorted.

I could see the Indian group were embarrassed. I noticed a black woman sitting motionless one seat back. As the woman continued her tirade, I came up to her, filming with my phone.

‘Do you want to say that to the camera, because I’ll put it on YouTube,’ I said. ‘Yeah, do. Yeah!’ she said. Well at least I now had her consent.

The Indian group moved away from her. We all got off at Limerick Junction. I went to a staff member and told him what happened, then brought the Indian group over to speak to him. When I got up to Dublin, a huge furore was developing.

The black woman sitting one seat back had recorded the incident and put it on Twitter.

Irish Rail did nothing to stop the racism she said, and she was left feeling vulnerable. This was a big claim for someone who didn’t try to stop the abuse or speak to Irish Rail staff. Yobbish and racist behaviour on trains can be exposed. Irish Rail staff will react quickly if told.