Parading of multicultural harmony doesn’t square with the grim reality

SURPRISE. Today is International Day Against Racism and we’re in the middle of Intercultural Week. Bet you didn’t know that.

We've just spent a week celebrating what it means to be Irish and it was great, wasn't it? Great, I imagine, if you were a punter at Cheltenham (a lot less good if you were one of the eight or nine horses that died for our entertainment). Certainly great if you were an Irish rugby fan, although the valves and arteries of my heart must be in great shape if I survived the tension of those last 10 minutes in Twickenham.

And it was great to be on the streets of Dublin last Friday, despite the cold. The parade and the people were full of life and there was more colour than usual, in every sense of the word. The first group I saw were dancers. They were well out in front of the official parade and seemed content to entertain the waiting crowd. And the crowd was getting a real kick out of their very colourful national costumes and the drum beat to which they were dancing. They were African, possibly Nigerian, and were clearly very welcome. Throughout the day, Dublin had a really happy cosmopolitan feeling to it. You could enjoy it, and come to the conclusion that we're coping with immigration in a way no one would have believed possible. Certainly, the good-natured and multicultural atmosphere of the day could persuade anyone that integration is really happening.