Ex-Mrs Brown's Boys star Rory Cowan blasts racist who abused Indian family on Irish Rail train

Footage of the man abusing the family on went viral

Footage of the man abusing the Indian family on an Irish Rail train went viral on Tuesday.

Prasun Bhattacharjee and his parents were travelling on a Belfast to Dublin train were allegedly told to "return to your country".

A voice can be heard in the video shouting: "F*** off back home."

A man in a blue t-shirt is later seen standing up in the carriage talking loudly over passenger.

The abuse sparked a debate on Joe Duffy's Liveline on RTE Radio One.

And Cowan was one of those who called in to slam the racist.

He said: “I’d have pulled the emergency cord and had that train stopped immediately.

“I’d have pulled the cord and the train would have had to stop until the guards arrived. That person must have been terrified.

“That’s the wonderful way Ireland is. We have a gay Taoiseach who is of Indian descent.

“Ireland is becoming a lovely little country to live in except for scum like that that abuse someone based on the colour of their skin.”

Mr Bhattacharjee told Joe Duffy it was his first time in Ireland.

Prasun said a man boarded the train in Dundalk, Co Louth, and berated and abused his family over their ethnicity.

He also said passengers were very apologetic after the ordeal - but were too scared to step in and stop him.

He said: “A person in the coach abused us for our race, colour and nationality.

“But the good thing was other people in the coach helped us – they were so cordial.

“The man sat beside us after boarding and he was white, wearing a shirt and I think he was drunk – he smelt like that.

“It [the abuse] lasted for about one hour. A security guard did intervene but still, he [the man] didn’t stop.

“He said, ‘Why did you come here? You don’t even know English’. My parents were very frustrated.”

A spokesperson for Irish Rail told the Irish Mirror: “This was a shocking incident and we are very sorry this family experienced such disgraceful behaviour on board one of our train services.

"On-board personnel did endeavour to stop the harassment and arranged for security to meet the train at Connolly upon arrival. We will provide gardai with CCTV footage to help identify the individual."