IRFU to make official complaint to gardaí over online racist abuse of Munster's Edwin Edogbo

IRFU spokesperson said three of the social media accounts were based in Ireland

Cobh's Edwin Edogbo with his first cap after the Guinness Six Nations match between Ireland and Italy at the Aviva Stadium. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is to make an official complaint to gardaí in the coming days in relation to social media accounts based in Ireland linked to the racist abuse of Munster rugby's Edwin Edogbo.

Last month, the Cobh native made his international debut for Ireland against Italy in the Six Nations rugby clash in Dublin.

Unfortunately, the occasion was marred by online racist abuse directed at the player on the Irish Rugby social media channels.

Posts on the IRFU X and Instagram accounts celebrating Edogbo’s first cap for Ireland attracted a number of racist comments.

In the aftermath of the online racist abuse targeted at the player, the IRFU has been collaborating with the data technology company Signify to investigate the comments which were directed at the Munster and Ireland player.

The 23-year-old was born and raised in Cobh to Nigerian parents.

In relation to the online racism investigation regarding the Ireland international, a spokesperson for the IRFU said:

“The IRFU can confirm it has received five case files from their partner Signify. Three of these appear to have accounts based in Ireland.

“The IRFU will be making an official complaint to An Garda Síochána in the coming days.

If any accounts are found to have links to rugby club members, we will not hesitate to take action.

“There is no place for anyone in a rugby club who behaves in this manner.” 

UCC lecturer Stephen McCarthy said the online racist abuse of Irish sports stars such as Edogbo had the potential to get worse going forward.

“It is going to be a tough few years when it comes to these types of cases and we are very likely going to see more of them.

"Attention is everything online and unfortunately these posts get attention.

“Bots that we saw over the last 10 years tended to be pre-programmed and had rules, they might just generate the same text multiple times.

“But now, with Agentic AI, these more advanced bots can respond to comments and message people."