05-08-2025
Children hurl racial abuse at Irish-born doctor: 'I was stunned and upset'
An Irish-born medical registrar said he was left stunned after a group of children hurled racial slurs at him as he left a shopping complex last week.
Dr Taimoor Salman estimates children as young as ten years old shouted slurs in a broken Indian accent at him.
The incident occurred after 9pm on Thursday evening as Dr Salman dropped into Blackcastle Shopping Centre in Navan, Co. Meath to pick up a few groceries on his way home from work at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda, Co. Louth.
He had stepped into his car and was about to reverse when a young boy cycled in front of him and repeatedly shouted a slur at him.
"I said he was being very rude and as I reversed an older boy, a young teen, came up and asked me if I had said something so I told him that his friend had been rude," he said.
"The older boy told me to shut up and then started doing impersonations of Apu, the Indian shopkeeper in the Simpsons. I just left. I didn't say anything more as they were children.
"I was stunned and upset. I have seen racial abuse and throw away remarks first hand to me and my colleagues at the hospital but I would never expect this from children who are generally very accepting of other nationalities. There seems to be a horrible pack mentality and this incident was insidious."
Dr Taimoor was born in Ireland where his father trained and practised as a surgeon and worked in Our Lady's Hospital in Navan before moving the family to work in the UK and Saudi Arabia.
"I lived in Navan and went to primary school here and have nothing but good memories of the town as a child. I never experienced any racism here.
"That's part of the reason I came back to live here with my wife and young daughter in 2017 and after I began working in the hospital in Drogheda."
Dr Salman, whose parents were born in Pakistan, believes that the streets of Navan have become too dangerous for him to walk at night.
"This wave of hatred to people of colour is quite recent and increasingly more open and brash. I've been back in Ireland for 15 years. In 2017, it was a peaceful and safe place and I could walk anywhere at any time without fear. Now it is too unsafe and I would only go to crowded places."
"There is no invasion in this country. This is everyone's home and everyone has to be respectful to everyone else. Racism is ugly and it shouldn't be accepted or tolerated.
"I've seen senior consultants and colleagues at the hospital targeted and even in guidelines, we are told to use the word 'coloured' people. Why? All people are just people. We all have a heart and we will all live and die. There should be no distinction.
"I saw a child on Thursday night. I didn't see a colour. No-one should see a colour"
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