If it is the case that racism in Northern Ireland is more characteristic of one side of the community than the other, that is well worth noting and exploring, because there could be important lessons to learn from that.

As the experience in the former Yugoslavia has shown, the fact that two groups of Christians are at each others throat is no guarantee that they will not at the same time be hostile to a third party, in that case, the Muslims.

I would suspect that the very fact that over the years far right groups based in Great Britain, like the BNP and the National Front have built up links with extreme Loyalists, and have presented themselves as friends of Loyalism in Northern Ireland, (as also has been true of the anti-immigrant gutter press), might be a strong factor in helping people from Republican and Nationalist backgrounds to be more resistant to this kind of racism than might otherwise have been the case.

Unfortunately there are people in some parts of the world who have little difficulty in combining a sentimental attachment to Irish Republicanism with racist attitudes.