In schools across Ireland, casting, scripting and rehearsals for the annual nativity play are under way. When children take to the stage in tea-towel head-dresses and cardboard crowns, the 'no room at the inn' motif will be integral to every performance.

That much-loved nativity story emphasises the unfairness of prejudice - closed minds and closed doors. But similar attitudes are apparent in Ireland today, where the welcome to strangers we used to prize as a national characteristic is under attack.

Racist opinions have passed the kitchen-table test and entered mainstream public discourse. And Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have facilitated this dangerous trend with their candidate selection for next week's by-elections.

Presidential candidate Peter Casey, who ran as an Independent, was first to lift the rock - a worm crawled out from beneath it and has swollen since being exposed to the light of day. He took a leaf out of Nigel Farage's book last year, targeting a specific group - Travellers - and managed to finish in second place behind Michael D Higgins.

Deliberately provocative, anti-migrant pronouncements have followed, both from within the Dáil and from those seeking election to our national parliament. It is no coincidence. The unpleasant reality is that a seam exists to be mined, and others are now busy excavating it to suit their own agendas. As they gain, we lose.

At least racism is not yet organised politically in Ireland. There is no alt-right political party with extreme nationalist, anti-migrant, Eurosceptic views such as those heard expressed in other national parliaments. But there can be no doubt that dangerous elements with an eye to political power are sizing up the Irish electorate.

Individuals with loathsome opinions are already seeking office here, among them the journalist Gemma O'Doherty - an anti-immigration, anti-Islam, anti-vaccine, anti-mainstream media campaigner (and many more antis besides) with a poisonous online presence.

Ms O'Doherty failed to win a nomination for her tilt at the presidency, but ran in the European elections last May, where she finished 12th out of 19 candidates. Judging by those two attempts, her electoral chances in the Dublin Fingal by-election are unpromising. Nevertheless, others may be emboldened by her stance - anti-immigration rhetoric garners support in some quarters. Ms O'Doherty won 10,622 votes, inclusive of transfers, before being eliminated. Undeniably, there is a vote to be tapped.

Even if these people aren't elected, the size of their vote is a means of measuring support and may encourage others to promote equally divisive policies. They seek legitimacy and a more prominent stage; electoral office can supply both.

All of us with any kind of platform, including political leaders, have an obligation to be robust in challenging bigotry. It's appalling that low standards have emerged among Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil candidates, raising questions about the parties' selection process.

Fine Gael's Verona Murphy advanced no evidence for her claims that Isil supporters were a "big part" of Ireland's migrant population, some asylum seekers may need to be "deprogrammed", and children as young as three or four could have been radicalised.

As for Fianna Fáil candidate Senator Lorraine Clifford-Lee, she has vented against Travellers, among others, in a scattergun range of tweets from up to eight years ago unearthed recently. It should be stressed that both women have apologised for their knee-jerk prejudice.

Voters next week can decide if their mea culpas were sufficient.

There can be no doubt of malice aforethought when Independent TD Noel Grealish targeted Nigerians in the Dáil last week. Condemnation was immediate. But he spoke to a particular demographic that's more than ready to hear his words and he knows it - no retraction has been offered.

Those episodes, in conjunction with a spate of protests against accommodation for asylum seekers in Galway and Leitrim, are alarming. Some of the demonstrations appear to have alt-right links.

Let's consider facts as opposed to scaremongering. Ireland is not a mecca for other nationalities. Applications for asylum peaked in 2002 at 11,634. Since 2009, they have remained below 4,000 and while a recent rise has been noted, numbers remain well down on previous highs.

Census figures for 2016 released last year showed 535,000 foreign-born people from 200 different nations living in the State. Our population stands at 4.7 million so we're hardly swamped. It's worth bearing in mind that in some countries, 15 to 20pc of the population was born elsewhere. However, some individuals hungry for political office are bent on inflaming fears. The pattern is evident in Europe, where far-right parties have a strong presence in Italy, Spain, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Austria and Germany, among other countries.

In Germany, the Alternative for Germany party is now the main opposition group in the Bundestag. Nigel Farage took part in its 2017 election campaign. As for his Brexit Party, it enjoyed an exceptional performance in Britain's European election this year. And in the European Parliament, the alt-right has formed itself into a bloc called Identity and Democracy.

Ireland's experience centres on large-scale emigration rather than immigration - we only became a destination attractive to immigrants in relatively recent times. Today, we are popular with students, including those learning the English language, while skills deficits have led to shortages being filled from abroad - Indian IT experts and nurses from the Philippines, for example, all paying taxes to the Irish Exchequer.

Last year, a report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) showed attitudes to immigrants in Ireland hardened during the economic collapse and are now lower than the Western European average.

The report, commissioned by the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC), found 41pc of Irish people were supportive of many or some Muslim immigrants entering Ireland; 45pc believed some races or ethnic groups were born harder-working; and 17pc considered some races to be born less intelligent. IHREC chief commissioner Emily Logan said the report "in some respects holds up an uncomfortable mirror to attitudes about diversity in Ireland" and showed "relatively high levels of discriminatory attitudes".

These need to be challenged by strong arguments showing the benefits from diversity. But direct provision is also a factor in this debate. Warehousing human beings for prolonged periods leads to people being viewed negatively, not as strangers to welcome but intruders to fear. No room at the inn, indeed. Direct provision is unfit for purpose and must be replaced.

Irish Independent