Influencer shares story of harassment by male students at University of Limerick

SOCIAL media influencer Ella Deasy took to TikTok over the weekend to share her experience while staying in student accommodation when she attended the University of Limerick (UL).

Upon finding out she got accepted into UL in August 2024, Ella had posted a video on her TikTok page @elladeasy123 with the caption “anyone staying in kilmurry in UL and wanna be friends xxx”.

In the video, posted on March 23, 2025, Ella told her 189k followers on TikTok that before starting her course in UL, she was seen by a male student moving into her accommodation around September 6, 2024.

READ MORE: Limerick woman Chloe Koyce shares terrifying ordeal after man followed her into hotel

Unknown to Ella at the time, the male student in question posted a TikTok indicating his intention to throw eggs at her accommodation.

From there, a group chat of up to 200 male students was created with the sole purpose of planning to go and "destroy" her accommodation.

The former Creative Media and Interactive Design student said: "I want to start off by saying, before I tell this story time, I'm not trying to discourage anyone or put anyone off going to UL or staying in Kilmurry Village. This is just the experience I had."

In week one, Ella explained that she did not know at the time that anyone knew which house was hers but she did know that a group of male students were looking to throw eggs at the house she shared with other students.

Ella said that on her first day of college she went out with friends before coming home and going to bed. She said: "I was woken up at about, I think it was half 4 in the morning, to boys screaming my name outside my bedroom window.

"It wasn't even outside the house it was actually the back of the house, so they knew exactly which bedroom was mine."

Ella said the men were chanting a song and that it went on for about 10 minutes before they left.

She explained: "I'd emailed the student accommodation's office about this, and they emailed me back, basically saying that in future, I shouldn't have put up where I was living, which is Kilmurry."

Ella said that later that she went to the student accommodation's office in Kilmurry and while there, she said she was told it was her fault and that there was nothing they could do about the situation.

That night, Ella said she went to bed and was woken up at around 2am to the doorbell ringing. She said she didn't think anything of it until she woke up the following morning and saw what had been done to the outside of the house.

The following morning, Ella discovered that eggs had been thrown at her and her neighbours' houses as well as yoghurt on the handle of her front door. Ella inserted photos of her bedroom window, the living room window and the neighbours' window which were covered in eggs and baked beans.

The following day, Ella went to the accommodation office again and was told she would have to pay to have the outside of the house cleaned.

Ella's parents came from Co. Clare to bring Ella cleaning supplies to clean the outside of the house and from there, they also took her to Henry Street Garda Station to report what was happening.

Ella said the guard took her statement and told her if it happened again it would become a harassment case. From there, it was arranged that guards would park up outside Ella's house for the night so that if the men returned, authorities were there waiting for them. 

She said: "So at 11.52 that night was when the boys first came back to the house again, the second night."

Ella said that this time, the men tried to kick the door in, rang the door bell again and egged the house. She rang Kilmurry Village security to come down and said it took them approximately 20 minutes to arrive. By the time security reached the house the male students had already left.

Ella commented: "And I'm sorry, my house wasn't that far away from where the security stay at the top of the village, so they would have been able to hear all this and did nothing about it."

However, the guards were there between five and ten minutes later when the male students returned and ten of the students were put in garda cars and asked to give their names and details. 

Ella said: "I'm thinking surely it's over now, the guards have caught some of them, surely that's enough for the rest of the boys to be like oh my god never mind, we're not going to do this anymore. Oh how I was wrong."

Later that morning more male students came back and egged the house, they threw litre bottles of vodka and mugs at the door and bedroom windows.

Ella explained what happened when she rang 999, as she had been advised to do so previously by the guard in Henry Street. 

According to Ella, the operator told her the call was being recorded and this was a serious thing to be "just messing about" and she explained that she was not messing, that what she was saying was actually happening and explained that she was targeted because of her social media to which the operator responded by laughing.

Gardaí were sent out and took another statement from Ella and she again notified the student accommodation's office. Ella said again, nothing was done about it.

She said that that evening, she knew the guards had contacted UL about it as two members of Kilmurry staff came to her house and let her know that they would get someone to come and clean the house. However, the following morning, Ella woke up to ketchup and eggs thrown at the door as well as a 70cl of vodka smashed outside.

Ella said she decided to take matters into her own hands and emailed the president of UL, Prof. Shane Kilcommins to explain what was happening and that she no longer wanted to live in Kilmurry because she felt unsafe.

She said: "I was moved within ten minutes, so I don't know how it took me emailing the president of UL to get moved when the student accommodation office and the manager of Kilmurry accommodations knew how much it was affecting me."

Ella was moved to a different accommodation on campus and referred to a mental health professional on campus to process what happened.

Ella soon learned that there were cameras in the student village and said she did not understand why no one went back and checked these cameras during the week prior when everything was happening.

She expressed her frustration at this given the time she and her parents spent repeatedly reporting the students to gardaí and the accommodation's office and Ella missing classes as a result.

Ella said she later dropped out because she didn't like her course. However, she said: "Obviously I don't think it helped what had happened to me in week one, I think it ruined my college experience altogether."

The University of Limerick responded for comment on the incident stating that there is "zero tolerance" for antisocial behaviour of any form in residential communities on campus. In their statement, UL said: "University of Limerick is aware of incidents of anti-social behaviour at an on-campus student residence early in the academic year but cannot comment on individual circumstances. Any concerns about student welfare are taken extremely seriously. 

"A number of increased mitigation measures can be used to ensure the safety and security of our students including increased security and village management, follow-up welfare checks and, where necessary, relocation."

"The University of Limerick have stated that they urge anyone with a concern about student behaviour to make an official complaint, which will "be treated seriously and then be dealt with promptly".