Former UL student Ella Deasy’s harassment ordeal ignites calls for change in student safety policies
Following Sinn Féin TD Mairead Farrell’s address to the Dáil, the University of Limerick’s Interim Vice President and Provost, Ann Ledwith, emailed all students addressing growing concerns around student safety.
As a mother of three daughters, Ledwith expressed her dismay surrounding recent reports in UL and reaffirmed the university’s support for the Government’s Zero Tolerance Strategy against gender-based violence.
Deputy Farrell highlighted the urgent need to protect young women from harassment and to challenge the attitudes enabling it. “We need to do better for our young women, and equally, we need to do better for our young men,” she said. “We must ensure we have an absolute zero-tolerance approach.”
Her comments were prompted by a viral TikTok series by former UL student and influencer Ella Deasy, who revealed she was harassed while living in on-campus accommodation at Kilmurry Village.
In August 2024, Ella shared that she would be moving into Kilmurry. Soon after, a first-year male student made a TikTok targeting her. On September 9, the first day of the semester – Ella returned from a night out and went to sleep. At around 4:30 am, she was woken by a group of boys outside her bedroom window, shouting her name and vandalising her front door with eggs and food.
The harassment continued. A group chat with over 200 male UL students was reportedly created to organise attacks on her house. That night, the boys returned, tried to kick in her door, rang the bell repeatedly, and shouted her name.
Ella contacted Henry Street Garda Station, in which she was advised that if this continued, it would be filed as a harassment case. This continued over the following week, resulting in her having to call 999.
After raising the issue with the UL President, Ella was moved to Drumroe Village, another student village on campus, within ten minutes.
Ella’s story, along with another tragic incident of harassment from Limerick-based influencer Chloe Koyce, have started a national conversation surrounding violence against women and the impact that social media has had on young boys. This conversation airs alongside a new Netflix series, ‘Adolescence’, based on a 13-year-old boy in the UK who is accused of murdering a female classmate.
After going public, Ella faced a wave of misogynistic abuse online. One male commenter wrote: “I will stop at nothing to hunt down and punish the perpetrators, Ella. Any chance of a bit of fun then after?”
Another commented: “Sorry, Ella just lose the run of myself sometimes” with another responding “Fair play. She 100% deserves it”.
Despite these issues being addressed in the Dáil and the University of Limerick openly showing their support for those who are facing gender-based violence and harassment, comments like these from male perpetrators display the deep-rooted misogyny that Ireland continues to face in today’s society.