Following the news yesterday that author Gavin McCrea was attacked earlier this month in Rathmines, he has spoken to RTÉ Radio 1‘s Morning Ireland about the incident.

McCrea had finished working on his second novel in UCS library at around 5:30 pm on Saturday and walked by the Dropping Well pub.

“I walked past two boys aged between 12-14 and when I passed by they started to shout at me and I know from very long experience, I’m 42-years-old, to ignore this kind of thing.

“Then they started to throw pebbles at my back. I was wearing a backpack so the pebbles hit my backpack.

“Then a few seconds later I could feel the boys had approached me from behind and they had started to scream at me and from the side of my vision I could see they were making threatening gestures.

“They were saying things like ‘apologise for ignoring me faggot’ or ‘hey faggot what’s your problem? why are you ignoring me you faggot?'”

He was speaking to his uncle on the phone at the time, who heard what happened and is now a “witness” to the attack.

His uncle told him to leave immediately but McCreatold him not to worry that they were only kids.

In order to evade the group, McCrea flagged down cars to deter them before fleeing the scene. However, around 15 minutes later the group of youths caught up with him once more, this time on an isolated section of the Dodder river path.

He said: “They attacked me from behind, they pushed me onto the ground and kicked and punched me in the face.

“Just before my mobile fell to the ground I shouted ‘call the police, call the police’ into my mobile phone and I think that made the attack much shorter than I think it might have been.

“There was blood pumping out of my face, they ran away and I got up.

“I knew it was quite serious because there was so much blood I couldn’t use my phone because there was so much blood on my hands and phone.”

A couple helped him on the street calling emergency services.

McCrea said: “People ask how did they know you were gay and my response to that is that they didn’t.

“My sexuality has nothing to do with it, they have no idea what I do in bed and what relationships I have.

“The fact is they may have seen something in my dress or in the way I walked or that I didn’t fight back, that put me in the ‘faggot box’ but that has nothing to do with me.

“That’s to do with what’s in their minds already before I even walked into their lives.”

Gardaí are now appealing to anyone with any information in connection with the assault on author Gavin McCrea to contact Rathmines Garda Station on 01 6666700, the Garda Confidential Line on 1800 666 111, or any Garda station.