If you're in immediate danger, call 112 or 999 now. Your safety comes first — getting somewhere safe matters more than gathering evidence. You can always report afterwards.
What is a hate crime or hate incident?
A hate crime is a criminal offence — like assault, threats, harassment or damage to property — that is motivated by hostility or prejudice towards who you are, including your sexual orientation or gender identity. A hate incident is any such hostility that may not (or not yet) meet the threshold of a crime, but still matters and is still worth recording. Both can happen in person or online — abusive messages, threats and harassment on apps or social media count too. It is never your fault, and you don't have to brush it off.
Your rights in Ireland
Ireland's Criminal Justice (Hate Offences) Act 2024 commenced on 31 December 2024. It means that where an offence — such as assault or criminal damage — is aggravated by hatred toward a protected characteristic (including sexual orientation and gender identity), it is treated as a more serious offence and can carry a higher sentence. Separately, incitement to hatred remains an offence under the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989. In short: targeting someone because of who they are is taken seriously by the law.
If you're targeted — what to do
- Get safe first. If there's an immediate threat, call 112 or 999.
- Keep evidence where it's safe to do so — screenshots of messages, usernames, dates, times, photos of any damage, and details of witnesses. For online abuse, capture it before it can be deleted.
- Report to An Garda Síochána. You can report hate crimes and incidents to the Gardaí, who have dedicated diversity officers.
- Use third-party reporting if you'd rather not go straight to police, or want an incident recorded either way — iReport.ie (run by INAR) documents racist and hate incidents in Ireland.
- Lean on support services — LGBT Ireland and BeLonG To can support you emotionally and practically after an incident.
Abuse on CruiseCtrl? If someone harasses, threatens or abuses you inside the app, report them from their profile or your chat — reporting also blocks them straight away — and our team acts on reports. See Reporting & blocking.
Across the EU
Protections and reporting routes vary between EU countries, but hate motivated by sexual orientation or gender identity is recognised as a serious issue across Europe. The EU Fundamental Rights Agency explains your rights and tracks hate crime across member states, and ILGA-Europe can point you to national organisations.
See also Your legal rights (EU), Coming out, at your pace, and Mental health & wellbeing.
Still need a hand? Our team is here. In an emergency, contact local services first.
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