Students at TU Dublin have called for increased college security and a stronger garda presence in the area surrounding the college's Grangegorman campus following a racist attack on students earlier this month at a nearby Luas stop.
An anti-racism rally was held on campus this lunchtime in solidarity with students affected by racism.
The college's student union called for more garda funding and higher garda visibility in the area "so that students feel safe". SU President Brian Jordan also said security workers at the college – many of whom are themselves people of colour – needed better equipment and more training "so that they themselves are safe".
The attack – during which some students were pelted with eggs and racially abused and one student had her hair pulled – took place at the Broadstone Luas stop, which was busy at the time with students from a variety of ethnicities who were going home after attending various evening social events on campus.
The perpetrators have been described by witnesses as boys of around 14 years of age.
Students at TU Dublin have criticised the college's response.
Second-year student Khrycel Figueroa told the crowd of around 200 that she did not want apologies from the university, she said she wanted to hear 'yes we will put security measures in place'.
Black and POC students told the rally that they felt exhausted and emotionally drained in the aftermath of that attack and as a result of an overall increase in racist occurrences of late.
The head of student services at the college Jennifer Farrell, said the college was reviewing the situation with a view to increasing security, but she declined to give a timeline for the review.
The Broadstone Luas station is a short but extremely isolated walk from the centre of the Grangegorman campus. At today's rally, students told RTÉ News that college security in the vicinity ended at 9pm, while the campus itself did not close until 10.
However, the college has told RTÉ News that this is not correct.
It said: "In-house staff are on-campus until 10pm when our buildings close, while our contracted security staff work throughout the night".
The rally also heard criticism of an article published in the Sunday Independent yesterday by Dublin City University lecturer Eoin O'Malley.
DCU Student Union Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion Christine O'Mahony said the politics lecturer had "wrongly equated the far-right with the far-left". She said "the far-right have left students feeling unsafe and have physically attacked them at a Luas stop, while the far-left are reaching out to those affected and demanding justice".
As the rally ended, black and POC students told RTÉ News that they were heartened by the turnout.
"It was great that so many non-people of colour were here, to stand with us", one second-year student said. "It was comforting".
Others said that the fact that the rally had been organised by the student union was "a first step" and "a bare minimum".
One black student who was at the Luas stop when the recent attack happened told RTÉ News how a group of white male students had objected when she had tried to stand behind them during the attack. Both she and others said they would like TU Dublin to educate students about the need to stand up for vulnerable students in situations like this.
"There needs to be more education on being a bystander and what you should do, and why you should not turn a blind eye. There needs to be more empathy", said one student.
TU Dublin Student Union president Brian Jordan said that since word of the Luas attack had spread, "more and more stories are coming out".
"We realised just how endemic these attacks are. We realised that we had to take a much stronger stance."
He said today's rally was about "trying to show that there are a lot more of us who support refugees, who support asylum-seekers, and diversity in the university and in wider Irish society".
