Racist graffiti on a wall across the road from a Cork school was painted over by local campaigners before children could see it on their way into classes yesterday morning.

The graffiti, which depicted a racial slur was spotted by Kathy D’Arcy as she left the Tramore Valley park on Wednesday evening close to Gaelscoil na Dúglaise.

D'Arcy, a leader of the Repeal the 8th campaign in Cork last year, asked for help on social media to find paint so she could cover up the graffiti.

Peter Horgan of the Labour party provided the paint and then city councillors Lorna Bogue and Dan Boyle of the Green Party helped paint over the graffiti.

When asked about covering up the graffiti, Ms D’Arcy told The Echo: “My whole aim was to cover it up so that members of the attacked community never know they were being targeted.” 

Cllr Bogue wasn’t surprised about how quickly people responded to cover the graffiti, recalling when people came together to remove graffiti that praised the murder of UK politican Jo Cox.

"I've always found that people react very quickly to stop hate. A few years ago someone put graffiti praising Jo Cox's murderer on a load of walls and on that occasion a lot of people offered help as well.”