Presbyterian General Assembly The former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Rev Dr Trevor Morrow, who is a minister in west Dublin, has spoken out against changing the Constitution in tomorrow's citizenship referendum and has called "on all those who hear my voice" to vote No.
Speaking at yesterday's session of the church's General Assembly in Belfast, he said that "in a country of such staggering wealth ... it seems outrageous at this time that the Government is working to change the Constitution in such a way as to exclude those most in need."
Referring to his congregation at Lucan in Co Dublin and Maynooth, Co Kildare, he said it had been "enriched by brothers and sisters from every continent of the world". It was now made up of 24 nationalities and their Sunday school was like "mini- United Nations".
Such people had "revived and renewed our church," he said.
Many of the newer members had "suffered greatly" and he spoke of a Nigerian woman member whose pastor and all the local Church deacons in Nigeria had been murdered by Islamic fundamentalists.
Speaking to The Irish Times, he wondered whether the traditional Irish "100,000 welcomes" was now to be extended only to the successful and not to the weak of the world. He was also shocked at the racism being experienced by members of his congregation, some of whom had "suffered appalling abuse". "They have been spat on and attacked."
He believed the referendum campaign had "touched a nerve of innate racism in some" and, while he did not believe this was intended by the Government, it had "appealed to some basic protective mindset". The type of civil nationalism required by the vision of a new, diverse Ireland, "says that those who live and are born here, belong here", he said.
Rev Katherine Meyers, a member of the church's Race Relations Committee and chaplain at Trinity College in Dublin, said that racism existed on this island, "fuelled by proposals such as that contained in the referendum, which are reactive rather than being grounded in full and generous debate of all issues."
She was not suggesting that the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, had made the proposal "with cruel intent".
"But I challenge him to read some of the election material that has come through my door in recent days and deny that the referendum proposal is being used to dignify deeply racist claims."
She commended a recent statement from the southern executive of the Methodist Church in Ireland's Council for Social Responsibility, which concluded: "We believe the referendum is ill-advised, and that the best course of action is to reject this referendum proposal to allow the necessary objective analysis and consultation on all aspects of immigration and citizenship to be undertaken."