An Indian tourist has claimed his family was racially abused on a train over the weekend.
Prasun Bhattacharjee and his parents were travelling on the 7.05pm train from Belfast to Dublin in coach D after spending some time in the North.
He said a man boarded the train in Dundalk, Co Louth, and berated and abused them for their ethnicity.
Mr Bhattacharjee told how no one stepped in to stop him but added passengers were very apologetic after the ordeal.
He said: “A person in the coach abused us for our race, colour and nationality.
“But the good thing was other people in the coach helped us – they were so cordial.
“The man sat beside us after boarding and he was white, wearing a shirt and I think he was drunk – he smelt like that.
“It [the abuse] lasted for about one hour. A security guard did intervene but still, he [the man] didn’t stop.
“He said, ‘Why did you come here? You don’t even know English’. My parents were very frustrated.”
Mr Bhattacharjee told Joe Duffy on RTE Radio One it was his first time in Ireland.
Another passenger called Peter, who claimed he was on the train, said he would have stepped in but was afraid he would be hit.
He said: “It was embarrassing to listen to the barrage of abuse the couple got. I wouldn’t like to assume but it sounded like he was from Dublin and maybe in his late 40s.
“He started to berate the man and said something about his wife. He told him to return to his country.
“I thought about intervening. But he was too boisterous – I was afraid of him to be quite honest.
“I went over to Prasun’s father at the end of the journey and apologised. He smiled and shook my hand.” Peter said he felt the security guard on the train could have done more by removing the man from the area or telling him he couldn’t behave like that on a train.
He added: “I’m sure the staff were aware this Indian family had been abused.”
A spokesperson for Irish Rail told the Irish Mirror: “This was a shocking
incident and we are very sorry this family experienced such disgraceful behaviour on board one of our train services.
“On-board personnel did endeavour to stop the harassment and arranged for security to meet the train at Connolly upon arrival.
“We will provide gardai with CCTV footage to help identify the individual.”
