Comment: In a land of many one-eyed men, it falls on us not to be wilfully blind to racism and xenophobia

The illogical nonsense that fuels all this racism and xenophobia still confounds

Ireland's Ronan Kelleher, Edwin Edogbo and Tadhg Beirne during the national anthems. Pic: Inpho

The first instinct was to ignore, to deny the oxygen that seems to feed the online hate and ignorance. Maybe that was the right call. Or maybe we need to keep calling out the racism and the sexism whenever or wherever we see and hear it.

The Six Nations weekend just gone was a paean to cosmopolitanism. Nowhere more so than in Dublin where thousands of Italian fans brought a vibrancy to the streets and Aviva Stadium stands that was matched by an Azzurri team that carried itself with class.