Ulster Rugby’s swift conclusion of the investigation into the racist abuse directed at Irish international Simon Zebo demands commendation.

So too the collective will of those supporters who witnessed the abuse, whose shame and abhorrence determinedly combined with the efficient CEO, Jonny Petrie, who would not have been thankful that one of his first major tasks in his new role was to conduct such an inquiry.

Zebo’s simple response to the apology proffered by the club and acknowledgement of thanks for the effort undertaken would seem to draw a line under the incident.

But, while rugby, and sport, might momentarily reflect approvingly on the end of this particularly ugly affair, vigilance must be uppermost in all minds.

This was not Zebo’s fight alone and, as he outlined last weekend in a revealing interview, not a new one either.

One of the most distressing aspects of this sordid episode has been the thinly masked diffidence to his initial publicising of his abuse, as if somehow he had pursued the inappropriate channels after suffering the abuse.

The subtext perhaps being that it might have been better to say nothing at all.

Anyone accepting of such a nonsensical argument clearly has no empathy with those who experience abuse in the first place.

Online racial abuse in this country is rife and, as was revealed last year, racially motivated violence remains at such an inordinately high level that it shames this country.

Zebo merely shone a light upon an area where far too many would prefer to wallow in blissful ignorance.

Ulster’s immediate response to this singular incident should not obscure that fact, even if such decisive action will surely prevent a re-occurrence within their own limited constituency.

But preventing racial abuse, verbally or otherwise, is not theirs to fight alone.

Nor is it that of the FAI, or the GAA, or any other sporting body.

It is for all of society to exercise vigilance and, as Ulster supporters have demonstrated, to cry foul in the most objective manner possible when such a line has been crossed.

But how many of us can be absolutely certain that this is how we react as a society when incidents of racial abuse in all forms maintains such a rampant stain on this country? Zebo was the target of the mindless minority of one in this instance but, no more than those who have previously suffered on our sporting fields, the abuse he suffered was endured by all who share the same colour of skin.

While the last 10 days will have been distinctly distressing for Zebo, one wonders how Robert Baloucoune, Ulster Rugby’s sensational emerging winger, must have felt as the jarring sense of being targeted for the mere sake of being different was hammered home with such ugly consequences.

So too any other black Irish man or woman, be they athlete or not.

That it was an isolated slur, not in the name of Ulster Rugby, may seem relevant to many of us, but it will have wounded Balocoune just as deeply as it did Zebo.

An attack on one is an attack on all.

The response, in this instance from Ulster, should also be a response shared by all. Any comfort to be gleaned by the resolution of this squalid affair should not blind us to the fact that, in sporting fields and beyond, racism remains endemic on this island, be it silent, vocal or violent.

And that also should shame us all.

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