Brendan Courtney, an Irish TV presenter and fashion designer, is speaking out after he was randomly attacked not far from his home in Dublin last night, Thursday, February 27.
"So I'm just going to do this because I feel like I should," Courtney, who was the first openly gay presenter in Ireland, said in an Instagram story on Friday.
He recounted how at nine o'clock last night, he was on his way home with some food when, just outside of his apartment on the quays, "three lads pulled up in a car and jumped out of a car and jumped on me and attacked me, punched me to the ground, cut my f---ing ear."
Courtney said he's "lucky actually, but I'm all sore," adding that they kicked him in the head a "couple times."
"An amazing American couple walking by started screaming and the manager from the place on the corner came out and the police were there in seconds and they jumped in the car and drove off."
He added: "Anyway, that happened to me yesterday, so be careful, Dublin. What's going on?"
About three hours later, Courtney posted another Instagram story sharing that he went to A&E.
"I'm sure I'm fine, just I reckon I have a mild concussion," he told his Instagram followers, adding that his head was "thumping."
He thanked everyone for the messages of support, but added: "It's not good enough to be sat upon on the street where you live and end up on a Friday in f---ing A&E with a concussion.
"It's not good enough. We can do better."
Courtney went on to share a post on Instagram that he captioned: "Just a little reminder of how FXXKING SUPER GAY I AM AND HOW SUPER FXXKING PROUD I AM TO BE."
View this post on Instagram
Speaking with RTE's Liveline on Friday, Courtney said the incident occurred at the intersection of Usher Street and Queen Street last night.
Gardai confirmed to Liveline that they attended the scene of an assault on a man, aged in his 50s, on Usher's Quay in Dublin 8 shortly after 9:30 pm last night.
Courtney said Gardaí have CCTV footage and he will be meeting with them on Monday to file a report.
Courtney, who was speaking on Liveline on Friday as he was waiting for a CT scan, said he got very upset this morning when he processed the attack and when he went to A&E, he "bust into tears" when he was with the triage nurse.
The Irish broadcaster said he was left "completely shaken" by the attack.
"I just remember it was a white car, I don't know what kind of car it was," Courtney told Liveline.
"Three lads in it and one of them wound down the passenger window and said something to me and I just sort of said 'hello' or whatever back.
"And next of all from behind, the driver and then the guy in the back jumped out and kicked me to the ground and punched me and kicked me in the head about five or six times."
Courtney said while he was on the ground, he felt "a boot to the side of my head, a boot to the back of my head, and a boot right in my face."
"I didn't know what was going on," he said, "it was just so surreal."
Courtney further said his attackers "were driving and stopped at the lights so I don't think they were coming to find me or anything like that.
"I think just they got a notion and jumped out and I can't believe it in this day and age."
Asked if he thought the three men recognized who he was, Courtney said: "I think so, yeah," adding, "And I was just coming from a gig, so I was wearing particularly fancy clothes... I'm sure I looked particularly flamboyant but I was just going along, minding me own business."
He said all he could hear his attackers saying was "get him" which he described as "absolute madness."
He said he believes his attackers were "out for the hunt" and that "they were going out to lash someone out of it, that's for sure."
He said: "I think they recognised me and I think that was perfect fodder. That's my feeling, I could be wrong, I could have just been a very obviously gay man with his chips walking across the bridge.
"So, maybe that was just the target, but I definitely feel that was happy slaps...obviously really horrible, dangerous and frightening."
He said that although we have a "very tolerant society" for lots of reasons, he can definitely feel "an anti-gay rhetoric" building.
"We're all tired of this nonsense, you know," he said.
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