The number of people targeted (click here) by racist behaviour has almost doubled over the last year, new figures have revealed.
The Immigrant Council of Ireland described the 85% rise in racist incidents as "stark", with a fifth of attacks happening in the home or local community.
Chief executive Denise Charlton said while the figures that reflect the past 11 months are preliminary, the hike is still alarming.
"These initial findings show that racism can occur anywhere, people have been made victims in their own homes, at work, on the street and increasingly online," Ms Charlton said.
"We will now carry out analysis of the figures to see why our current laws are not preventing racism and examine what procedures can be in put place, including a reformed reporting system."
Some 142 racist incidents have been reported since January, compared with 77 over the same period last year....
IRISH society (click here) must not "rest on its laurels" where recent incidents of religious intolerance and xenophobic behaviour are concerned, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has warned.
In an address at the Mater Dei Institute in Dublin, the archbishop said we all lived with "inherited prejudices, misunderstandings and stereotypes" which can "subtly and rapidly raise their ugly heads if we are not attentive".
Elsewhere in his address at the first ever Christian, Muslim and Jewish conference on dialogue in Ireland, Archbishop Martin said Ireland had no wish to remain as a "closed monolithic culture on an island isolated from what is happening around the world".
The Primate of Ireland said dialogue between faiths was not just for scholars and theologians, adding: "It is a public good even in societies that proclaim themselves secular."
His comments were made just weeks after the Muslim community in Ireland reported a series of sickening hate-mail letters which were sent to mosques and homes....
