Online abuse 'getting worse' says academic who was told to 'go home to his shanty town in India'

Senior UCC lecturer says online racist and Islamophobic abuse is 'getting worse'

Amanullah De Sondy from Glasgow is a senior lecturer at University College Cork. Picture: Dan Linehan

A Cork academic has said the level of online racist and Islamophobic abuse he is experiencing is “getting worse”.

Dr Amanullah De Sondy suffered the latest attack after he spoke online at an integration conference on Monday — where a right-wing activist uploaded a video of part of his address and told him to “go home to his shanty town in India” and that Ireland was a “white Christian nation”.

That video has prompted a number of groups, including Nasc, the Cork-based migrants and refugee rights organisation, to condemn the abuse.

Nasc said that in recent months, it has been horrified by the “increase in hate” on social media.

The organisation said migrants and people from ethnic minorities were being subjected to an “onslaught of vile, racist, abusive, dehumanising, and often threatening comments and messages”.

Dr De Sondy, senior lecturer in University College Cork (UCC), said he was speaking at the opening of a conference on integration organised by the Immigration Council of Ireland.

His video was uploaded by a known right-wing activist, who said: “If you don’t like it [in Ireland] go home, go home to whatever shanty town you come from in India — Ireland is a white country, if you don’t like it feck off back to India — Ireland is a white Christian nation.” 

“It’s getting worse [the abuse],” said Dr De Sondy, who is head of religions at UCC. 

“Yesterday, there was a video in circulation — other people know him — he grabbed some video of my opening speech and at the end of it he’s telling me to feck off and go back to my home in India, vile kind of stuff. That seems to be circulating more on social media.” 

He said that he has also received “horrible, evil” messages on his university phone.

I’m getting more emails now from people — a mixture of racism and Islamophobia.

Dr De Sondy said he feels he needs to use his “privileged position” to challenge the narrative driven by the far-right in Ireland, who have tried to define what Irishness is and is not.

“I hear it from those going on about 'Ireland is for the Irish'. They define Irishness quite clearly and quite boldly — typically white Catholic Ireland.

“We need a counter to that. We need individuals, grass root organisations and we need our political leaders to say what it means to be Irish and what diversity means to Irishness. We need to reclaim the narrative.”