A man who abused a journalist with expletive-laden racist insults has been given a six-month jail term.
David Limond was sentenced at Ayr sheriff following his conviction last month for "sending a threatening communication aggravated by racial and religious prejudice."
He had broadcast a stream of insults on his online radio show directed at journalist Angela Haggerty - who is of Irish descent - in which he referred to her as a "Taig" (a derogatory term used in Scotland to describe Irish people and those with an Irish heritage).
He encouraged listeners to "hit her with everything you've got" and soon afterwards she was subjected to a series of abusive tweets.
During his trial Limond tried to pass off his broadcast as a joke. But the sheriff, Scott Pattison, told him it "would cause a reasonable person to suffer fear or alarm."
Haggerty, who reports for The Drum, said she was "relieved that this case has been concluded... Mr Limond referred to me as 'Taig of the day' in his podcast last year. I am glad that the court saw that this was simultaneously a racist and sectarian comment.
"I am proud of my Irish heritage and that seems to irk people like Mr Limond in Scotland."
As I noted when I reported this case, it was not covered by the main Scottish media outlets. Nor, it appears, has it yet been reported today (except here on the STC website). There is nothing thus far on the websites of the Scottish BBC, Glasgow's main paper, The Herald, and Scotland's main tabloid, the Daily Record.
It was also noticeable that STV's headline referred to Limond's activities as "religiously motivated abuse" but not racist abuse.
The mainstream Scottish media is clearly in denial about anti-Irish racism in the west of Scotland. But there was another indication of its existence in a story that broke today, which has received wide coverage throughout the day in Ireland (and was, in fairness, also covered by The Herald).
A Glasgow cab driver is alleged to have demanded that two passengers should stop speaking in Irish. He is said to have told them: "If they want to speak in that language they can get out of my taxi." So they did. Glasgow city council is now investigating a racism complaint against the driver.
