DCU Student who witnessed racial abuse on bus says driver did not intervene

The DCU student who recorded and intervened in a racial abuse incident on-board a JJ Kavanagh & Sons bus said he was told by the bus driver ‘’if you don’t like it, move’’.

First year communications student, Jack Reardon, received recent publicity after posting a video of a racial attack on a Nigerian man to a variety of media outlets.

In a statement to The Irish Independent, a spokesperson for JJ Kavanagh & Sons claims that the driver of the bus called the Gardaí twice and that he approached the offender and asked him to stop the abuse.

Reardon contradicted these statements, while speaking to The College View. He said when he approached the driver urging him to take action, the driver refused to do so.

‘’I went to the driver and told him what was going on and said ‘this has to stop, you need to go down and kick him off the bus’, at which point the driver turned around to me and said ‘if you don’t like it, move’, said Reardon.

“I thought he misheard me so I said it to him again. He just said ‘yeah, it’s not my problem, move’.” Reardon said.

Reardon said that other passengers on the bus also approached the driver telling him of the abuse to which he repeated that it was not his problem.

When asked if the claims by JJ Kavanagh and Son’s spokesperson, that the driver sought to take action and called the Gardaí, were true, Reardon said ‘no’.

A representative from JJ Kavanagh & Sons could not be reached for comment. The Irish Independent reports that the bus service banned the passenger from their buses for his racist remarks.

Reardon said “I recorded him because one, I wanted proof for JJ Kavanagh’s to say the driver did nothing when this was going on and just to show people a man like that is still around in modern 2014 Ireland.”

Reardon’s recording, which was featured by media outlets, shows the abuse directed at Nigerian father of three, Yomi Ogunyemi, by a seemingly intoxicated passenger.

Reardon said the perpetrator began using the ‘n’ word as soon as Mr. Ogunyemi boarded the bus in Clonmel. When Reardon confronted the man he redirected his abuse toward him saying ‘‘how would your parents feel if you brought home a little black b***h?”

Katie O’Neill