In 1996, Francine Blache-Breen (above) moved from a disadvantaged area of Dublin to Letterkenny to escape racist abuse directed at her daughter, then aged nine: "Sinead couldn't stick her head out of the door - there was name-calling, beating and chasing. She became quite afraid. I watched her change from an outgoing child into someone who was reclusive and cynical.
"I didn't want her to battle every minute of every day. I had a responsibility to provide a reasonable environment for her. We couldn't afford to move anywhere in Dublin where the reality would have been different." So they moved to Donegal, where Sinead has made friends, attends the Irish school and has slowly become more outgoing. Francine, who is African-American, met her Irish husband, Peter, in the US. In 1987, the family moved to Dublin and Francine began to experience racism: "I couldn't walk around without getting called names. People were so busy staring at me they put themselves in danger - walking into traffic or drivers almost hitting other cars. Friends thought I was being paranoid - nobody believed `the land of open arms' was racist."
Despite increasing ethnic diversity, the situation has not improved. "In some small towns, people stare open-mouthed when I walk down the street. I feel more comfortable in Belfast than Dublin. In Dublin, there is this assumption that I am a refugee and somehow `skiving' the system - not that people should be reacting to refugees in this way either. "Now is the time to address racism in this country - instead of trying to ignore differences, you have to talk about them. That's what diminishes racism. It has to be addressed in schools, with children, then it becomes part of the consciousness and they don't pass racism on to their children."
