A woman who called out a man for staring at girls on a Galway beach has said we all must take a stand against sexual harassment.

Gardaí are investigating after NUI Galway lecturer Sheila Garrity caught the man staring intently at the women while they were changing on Silver Strand beach last week.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, she said it was an “intimidating experience” but insisted she would have no hesitation about speaking out again.

“I came out of the water and I was in the changing area and two young women, maybe around 20ish or in their early 20s, came out at the same time, so we were under the shelter changing,” she said.

“It was busy enough down there. There was a fair number of cars parked and people out walking, people swimming.

“They were full of all the energy of young women; they were kind of giddy and chatty and I was really enjoying their energy there in the shelter and thinking about my own daughter.”

Silver Strand Beach in County Galway. Image: Declan Maher/Goegraph

She said a man in his 40s then came out of the water and joined them in the changing shelter.

“When I turned to sit down on the bench, I noticed that he was obviously watching the young women changing,” she said.

“Not just glancing, not maybe watching, he was turned and watching them change and, I don’t know what came over me, maybe it was my maternal instinct […] I just called him out on it and said, ‘hey can you please just stop watching the young women change and maybe just look straight ahead.’

“I don’t know where it came from but that is what I said and he did stop. He stopped for a few moments, he didn’t acknowledge me, he didn’t look at me and then he turned his head and started watching them again.

“So, I said it again to him. I said, ‘hey, we all try to mind our own business here and change discreetly and respect our fellow swimmers so can you stop watching the young women change.’”

Harassment

She said the young women then gathered their things to go and finish changing at their car.

“I thought, ‘oh geez, I am scuppered here now, I am left in the shelter with this man,’ so I gathered my things and moved out to the bench that is closer to the beach area,” she said.

“He followed behind me and caught me by surprise and started shouting at me – not the nicest things that you would like to hear on an afternoon down at your beach.

“He was just full of rage and angry and, thinking back on it, he was acting like he was entitled to be doing what he was doing.

“He was acting like there was nothing wrong with what he was doing and our public space is for everyone. It is for our young women, it is for our children, it is for all of us and if we don’t call them out on it, it will continue.”

Intimidation

Dr Garrity said things got even more intimidating as she tried to make her way home from the beach.

“There is a road that leads up from the beach and, as he was walking up, he started walking up really slowly and looking over at me and, when I looked over at him, he was waving at me.

“So, I switched from feeling very brave and confident to feeling fairly intimidated really at that point.

“No husband likes to have his wife call to say, ‘honey, can you pick me up, I feel unsafe but that is how it turned out.’”

Call it out

She said it is essential that people continue to call out sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour when they see it.

“These are the kinds of behaviours that rob women of their freedom and it is the kind of behaviour we have to call out,” she said.

“As uncomfortable as it was to do that and as shook as I was feeling afterwards, I am feeling fine now.

“We have to call it out and if we don’t things won’t change and our daughters won’t be safe.

“It is that encroachment that some men feel they have, that entitlement through their gaze and when they are called out, the anger and rage of being challenged can be quite frightening.”

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