Website logs 158 reports of racism since summer

A website that logs reports of racism has said it has received 158 reports since it launched on Jul 11, including 22 reports of online racism.

The site, iReport.ie, is operated by ENAR Ireland (Irish Network Against Racism) and sets out to log instances of alleged racism reported to it.

Its first quarterly review is to be launched next month but initial figures indicate that the number of racist incidents it is told about exceeds the number of reports made to gardaí.

Of the 158 reports the site has received since it launched in July:

* 129 incidents involved interpersonal racism or racism targeted at an individual;

* 29 cases involved allegations of institutional racism and discrimination;

* 15 reports of the total 158 involved allegations of racism against Travellers;

* Nine cases involved alleged racism against Roma.

The data indicates 22 reports were made since July regarding online racism: 11 allegedly racist comments were made on Facebook, with seven claims linked to websites and message boards, and three of the reports made related to Twitter. One was an email.

It is understood that one of the Twitter reports involved a comment made by World Champion racewalker Rob Heffernan. He subsequently apologised.

ENAR director Shane O’Curry said under-reporting was still commonplace. “Only a small percentage of incidents are reported to Gardaí, usually less than 15% of incidents,” he said.