Indian Embassy in Ireland warns citizens to ‘avoid deserted areas, especially in odd hours’

01 Aug 2025, 16:03 by Diarmuid Pepper, https://www.thejournal.ie/author/diarmuid-pepper/ · TheJournal.ie

LAST UPDATE | 21 hrs ago

THE INDIAN EMBASSY in Ireland has issued a safety advisory to Indian citizens after a recent increase in physical attacks against citizens.

The Embassy said it has been in touch with the relevant authorities concerning an “increase in physical attacks reported against Indian citizens in Ireland”.

It has advised Indian citizens to “take reasonable precautions for their personal security and avoid deserted areas, especially in odd hours”.

Last Friday, over 100 members of the Indian community in Ireland held a silent vigil outside the Department of Justice.

The organisers, Friends of India, said the 40-minute vigil was a “collective call for justice, unity, and action against hate crimes”.

This was in response to an attack of an Indian man in Tallaght the weekend previous.

On 19 July, a man in his 40s was assaulted by a group of youths in the Parkhill Road area of Kilnamanagh in south-west Dublin after being falsely accused of inappropriate behaviour.

The man was stripped of his pants and underwear by the gang during the vicious attack.

Gardaí have appealed to anyone who may have witnessed the assault to come forward and no arrests have been made so far in connection with the assault.

People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy said the assault appeared to be the latest in a “series of recent racially motivated attacks by a gang” in the area.

“The racist groups and individuals who spread their hate bear a heavy responsibility for this and for racist attacks elsewhere” said Murphy.

An anti-racism demonstration was also held in Tallaght last Friday in response to this attack.

Impact on Ireland’s reputation

The chair of the Ireland India Council, Prashant Shukla, told RTÉ that he has been receiving reports of one or two attacks per day recently.

He said he has written to the Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan, Tánaiste Simon Harris and Garda Commissioner Drew Harris over the recent incidents.

While Shukla said he has received “acknowledgments” of this correspondence, he added: “So far I haven’t seen the desired action on the ground.”

He said that his own 19-year-old son was attacked a few months ago when he was walking home from university.

Shukla said his son was “attacked from the back” and was “injured, but not seriously”.

He said that in the two months after this incident, he made arrangements to take his son to and from university.

Shukla said that the co-chair of the India Ireland Council was also recently attacked “in broad daylight near Heuston station” and that a child of 11 or 12 was also “badly beaten when he was playing”.

“There’s been a number of serious attacks within the last four or five days,” said Shukla.

He added that the recent spate of attacks will have a “great impact on the international reputation” of Ireland as being a place that is “always welcoming, peaceful and friendly”.