Mohammed Hussain Al-Sad'r is a 39-year-old Iraqi-born doctor and pathologist who studied at Oxford and the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. He has been in Ireland for 18 years and became a citizen 11 years ago.

He comes from a distinguished family of human rights activists and opponents of Saddam Hussein's regime. When he was 15, his mother, also a doctor, was assassinated, having been imprisoned and tortured many times.

Dr Al-Sad'r works in several Dublin hospitals and is a keen jazz bass guitarist.

"I am very proud to be Irish... I believe I have added `colour' to Ireland in more ways than one. Most refugees have just as much, if not more, to offer this country. The Irish, an emigrant nation themselves, have received the increasing number of refugees with a perplexing hostility.

"Racism is raising its ugly head... All this distresses me. I have been a loyal citizen of this country for more than a decade. I feel as Irish as any other man or woman here. Now I am being judged by what I cannot conceal, my colour.

"Ireland is a very fragmented country... It is only through nipping racism in the bud early... that Ireland can be a safe home for all its white, black, brown, yellow, red, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish and Muslim people. Only then can Ireland enter the 21st century with an attitude that is not just European, but truly global."