GARDAÍ IN CORK city are investigating an assault on two Chinese men in their 20s who were allegedly attacked following taunts about Covid-19 originating in their native country.

The men – Martin Hong and Arthur Ma, say they were attacked by three teenagers in Ballyphehane on the south side of the city on 8 August. Mr Hong and Mr Ma sustained cuts and bruises in the incident.

Hong said the attack involved a group of three people. 

“It was around 8 pm when I was walking with my friend in Ardee (Cork) to do some
grocery shopping,” he told RTÉ’s News at One.

“On the way, we heard some people talking about the ‘Chinese virus’  as we were walking in their direction.”

They were making fun of us but when we asked them to repeat what they were saying, they laughed at us and made fun of us. They also raised their middle finger towards us.

Hong said when his friend took out his phone, one of the teens produced his own phone. 

“My friend tried to film it because we did not want to get into any
physical contact with them. We asked them to repeat what they said.”

They said we were racist and were saying bad things about Ireland. They were saying Black Lives Matter and were filming themselves and they tried to portray themselves as the victims.

Hong says he and his friend were then assaulted.

I stepped forward to try to reason with them and he started to punch me. One of the guys punched me on the neck, and the second was on my eyes and nose and both of my eyes got very severely bruised. My nose was bleeding and I also lost one of my teeth and I also lost my consciousness for one or two minutes. I was on the ground.  

Hong said there were three people in the group and that one of them attacked his friend.

He said the both ended up in hospital overnight: “I was passed out and a very nice old lady walking by called the police and the police took us to hospital.”

The two men have lived in Ireland for over a year and Hong said it was the first
time they had experienced such a violent incident.

“Before now, all the racial things were verbal – this is the first time I got physically attacked.

“For the past week I haven’t dared to go outside my home because it happened around my home so I don’t dare to go out from my home,” he added. 

Gardaí have confirmed that they are following a definite line of enquiry in relation to the incident.