A Temple Bar business owner says discovering racist graffiti in the area today was a 'disgusting' thing to have to experience.
'White Lives Matter' was misspelled on a shopfront in Temple Bar.
Meanwhile, the n-word was sprayed across the Ha'penny Bridge overnight, with contractors having since removed the racist message from the city landmark.
Gardaí are now investigating.
Ayuba Salaudeen is the owner of Tola Vintage, and he told The Hard Shoulder that seeing the graffiti today was like a 'punch to the face'.
Racist graffiti was sprayed across the Ha’penny Bridge and in Temple Bar today - some of which was beside Ayuba Salaudeen’s shop @tola_vintage. Today he refused to open the shop in protest. He spoke to @kierancuddihy for @TheHardShoulder pic.twitter.com/5Hlu46bQdy
— NewstalkFM (@NewstalkFM) September 17, 2020
The 'white lives matter' message was sprayed near his own shop, but he had encountered the Ha'penny Bridge message before he even arrived at work.
He said: "What got me more upset was walking to work, and [seeing] the n-word sprayed all over the floor on Ha'penny Bridge.
"I think that annoyed me more... [it's] disgusting to see on your way to work.
"When I got to the shop, then right next to my shop was 'white lives matter'. I couldn't go about my day... I just decided not to open my shop today."
He said it was important to him to keep his business closed today as a protest, telling Kieran he wouldn't have felt safe talking about the graffiti all day.
Ayuba Salaudeen. Picture: Rory WalshDealing with racism
Ayuba says he's heard of people being racially abused on public transport, and it was something he dealt with a lot himself he was younger.
He said while he has not encountered racism much as an adult, today's experience was just "disgusting".
He said: "I dealt with it today, and it's not a nice thing.
"We'll be back open tomorrow, and hopefully something's done about [the graffiti]. Hopefully they find out who did it. To anybody out there who knows who did it, it would be nice for them to come forward.
Ayuba said whoever sprayed the racist messages now needs to educate themselves.
He observed: "We are all humans... skin colour doesn't really matter.
"It doesn't matter where you're from, your ethnic background, your religion... we are all one.
"They need to know that, and they need to agree with it."
