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A KERRY WOMAN, who has Vietnamese heritage, has told how she was racially abused and spat on in Dublin city centre yesterday afternoon.
Úna-Minh Kavanagh was waiting for a friend outside a hotel on Parnell Street yesterday evening when she noticed a group of about seven teenagers walking towards her and yelling.
As they passed her one of them shouted: “And you’re a f***ing chink”. Then one of the youths grabbed her face, shook it and spat on her.
“He spat in my hair, it was just incredibly degrading. The whole incident lasted a couple of seconds, less than ten seconds,” she told TheJournal.ie today, saying she was left “disgusted” by the whole incident.
Kavanagh’s story came to light after she blogged about it yesterday evening, writing: “I gathered my thoughts and posted my outrage and I reported it to the Gardaí. It was horrible and terrifying but I am not a coward.”
The 21-year-old journalism graduate and gaeilgeoir says she is subjected to verbal attacks “pretty much on a weekly basis” but said this was the first time she had been on the receiving end of a physical attack.
Kavanagh’s decision to blog about the incident saw a huge pick up on Twitter with prolific tweeter and comedy writer Graham Linehan highlighting the incident to his nearly 300,000 followers:
“Twitter has been absolutely amazing,” Kavanagh said. “They actually got me through it because I was feeling a bit depressed about the whole thing. I am so grateful for the support, it’s fantastic.”
Kavanagh said she has experienced abuse because of her background for her entire life and would like this incident to give her an opportunity to speak to young people from a background similar to hers to encourage them to report racist abuse.
She confirmed she has spoken to gardaí at Store Street in Dublin in relation to the incident.
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I feel so so so sad.Mark came to speak to my school a few years ago. He was a friend of my teacher.,He was great craic and really motivated us, Its awful to hear he is now paralysed, I hope alot of money is raised for him
Unlucky guy, fair play to him for being so positive.
Massive respect to Mark. I heard him on the radio a few weeks ago, a tragic yet inspiring story. We can all learn from his postivity and fortitude. Keep fighting, fella.
I was feeling under the weather today and this story put things into perspective. I will do the run if we can get further details….
Hi Simon – Mark will be delighted to hear it – I put the link to the website with all the details in the article above so readers could easily click through. It is http://www.run4mark.com. Good luck with it!
I watched the programme with Mark in it last year,what a cruel twist of fate Mark has had to endure,losing his sight,and then becoming paraylaysed,and not once have I ever heard him complain.he’s a testament to the words bravery,I really hope everyone can get involved and help Mark in anyway they can.
A total gentleman. Everyone should do all they can for him. I struggled in a fitness test recently and thought of marks journey to the pole…… I found the strength to finish the course.
Where does he get his strength from. It’s amazing
What an inspiration, did he ever get married!
i saw a story today of an ipad2 sold for $5million.
what a waste when causes like marks could benefit from the donations etc…
best of luck with the run, id take part only i suffer with chronic back pain
I’ve shared the link http://www.run4mark.com on other websites that I use. Who knows, someone out there might cough up a load of money to help this young man deal with this new challenge. Mark sounds amazing.
Jaysus, blind n paralysed………
What a fukin trooper.
We all give out for not havin enuf money or cool accessories- try this mans shoes on for the day ( no pun intended)
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