Twenty racism attacks reported since start of 2014

There has been a massive spike in reported racist incidents — including a petrol bomb attack and one incident where a boy, aged 9, was assaulted by a 30-year-old man — since the start of the year.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) said it has received 20 reports of racist incidents in the first 20 days of the year, in comparison to just one reported incident in Jan 2013, and four last December.

The council’s CEO, Denise Charlton, said that worryingly, 40% of the reported incidents so far this year relate to attacks on the family home or in a person’s local community.