Lecturers at Edinburgh University have become the first in the UK to undertake accent bias training to counteract anti-Scottish bullying at the institution.

Campaigners have said accent or class-based prejudice should be treated like racism or sexism.

People Before Profit Councillor Hazel De Nortúin told Newstalk Breakfast that she would be interested to see this area investigated more in Ireland.

“It’s probably one of the more discriminatory aspects that’s been left behind the other more prominent ones - obviously, sexism and racism being more,” she said.

“I would find out from friends that I would have in different ethnic groups, in particular Traveller community and Roma community.

"They would find that they would either try and dilute their accents or say that they were from a more regional area.

“Rather [than saying they were from] the Traveller community because they would find accent bias far more prominent.”

An EU report finds Irish Travellers have the highest acute poverty, lowest employment and face some of the worst discrimination of six Traveller and Roma communities in Europe . Photo: Sam Boal / RollingNews.ie

Cllr De Nortúin said even revealing yourself to be from a certain area can lead people to perceive you a certain way.

“I’m from Ballyfermot, I represent the Ballyfermot-Drimnagh area, and a lot of the media headlines are of probably unsavoury topics, to put it lightly, rather than the nice positive stuff that happens,” she said.

“That always comes through when you’re doing any community developments or festivals that we’ll do is, ‘Can we get some positive news into it?’

“So, it probably pre-leads what your perception of someone is going to be – but I think that goes across all areas.

“That could be someone from a more affluent area where you presume that, ‘They won’t understand me at all or where I come from’, just because of how they sound.”

According to Cllr De Nortúin, this issue likely has an effect on access to education for certain groups and areas.

Main image: The University of Edinburgh Faculty of Divinity courtyard as tourists explore the stairs. Image: Mark Waugh / Alamy. 5 September 2017