Recent comments by the North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, about the Republic being a pathetic, mono-ethnic and mono-cultural state were "unhelpful," the chairman of the national anti-racism awareness programme has said.
Mr Joe McDonagh said Ireland is a multi-cultural society, "and it's something we want to celebrate and to recognise the great strengths that it has brought".
Mr Trimble, the Ulster Unionist Party leader, made his comments at the Ulster Unionist Council meeting in Belfast last Saturday. "Contrast the United Kingdom state - a vibrant multi-ethnic, multi-national liberal democracy, the fourth largest economy in the world, the most reliable ally of the United States in the fight against international terrorism - with the pathetic sectarian, mono-ethnic, mono-cultural State to our south."
Mr Kensika Monshengwo of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and Interculturalism (NCCRI) said: "This is the kind of remark we are trying to avoid here in the South because all the work we are doing can be wiped out by one remark by a very prominent politician."