Newstalk has reported that a two Irish women accompanied by a young child, were subjected to vile, racist abuse by a woman on a train from Athlone to Dublin on January 14th while staff on the train failed to intervene.
Speaking to Lunchtime Live, Monica explained she and her sister along with one of their grandsons boarded the train, all with tickets matched to allocated seats.
The two ladies seats were free however, the seat belonging to the young child was taken up with bags belonging to a woman.
“The lady that owned the bags would not move; she said she wasn’t taking the bags down and she wasn’t moving.
“His name was in the slot above the seat, so it was obvious that it was reserved and paid for.
“My sister was very nice and polite and said, ‘Look, we don’t want you to move – that’s OK – just move your bags and let the little boy sit in – and she said no.
“One thing led to another and she was very, very abusive to the girls.
“She said that they were f*****g racist bitches and that they were white trash.”
Monica told Lunchtime Live.
Staff failed to take any action regarding the aggressive racist, even after the ticket inspector boarded and the aggressive woman taking up the child’s seat with her bags, admitted she had no ticket.
The distraught woman went on to say:
“What I want to know [is] what rights does the passenger have who has booked in advance and their name is on the little slot above the seat, have we any rights at all?
“Are they going to act on this?
“That girl went all the way to her destination – there was nothing further said.”
She said the ticket inspector “wasn’t able to verbally match her.”
“He turned to my sister and said, ‘What do you want me to do about this? Do you want me to stop the train?’
“He was putting the onus on her to make the decision as to what was to happen next.
“I thought that’s what the inspectors were for on the train, to do something about it.
“He backed down; he just did nothing about it”.
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