"A YOUNG hurling player who was the subject of racial taunts at a match last week has received an apology from the GAA.

"The association issued the apology after Teboga Sebala, who is originally from Nigeria but has been living in Carlow town for the last four years, was racially abused as he played for Eire Og in an under-14 semifinal against O'Hanrahan's.

"He was reported to have been the subject of persistent racist taunts by several spectators during the match."

Reports like that above from an Irish newspaper are becoming increasingly common in Ireland. At a time when the U.S. may well be on its way to electing a new African American president, it seems Ireland is merely entering the fraught arena of race relations, and is grappling with how to handle the issue.

For some reason last week the contrast between Senator Barack Obama, visiting Europe and representing the great black hope for the world and for race relations everywhere, and the report from Ireland on adults picking on a young teenager because of his race struck a deep chord.

By all accounts what happened to the young Nigerian kid playing hurling was a particularly horrible experience. What should have been a glorious lesson in multiculturalism -- i.e., black kids playing Ireland's most ancient and historic game - instead turned into a nightmare.

A group of young women supporting the other team began the racist comments soon after the match commenced, egged on, it seems, by several men present. Epithets like "Go home n*****" were thrown at the young lad, who seemed to handle himself with grace and class despite the provocation.

The saddest part is that the teen readily confessed that the abuse was nothing new to him and that he had grown used to it.

Now, it is not that Carlow is some cultural backwater where such behavior is out of step with the rest of the country. In fact the county has effectively become almost a Dublin exurb as the city explodes outwards. What the young lad experienced is probably not that unusual for many of his fellow black immigrants.

The sheer virulence of the bigotry is alarming, though. When a young mother approached the group and asked them to stop they reduced her to tears by swearing at her and confronting her.

Such behavior is truly disconcerting in a country that should know well enough about the perils of racism as it was practiced on many Irish in America and Britain many years ago.

The incident also reflects the reality that with the economic situation on the downslide in Ireland, there are widespread fears that such race baiting may become more common. Indeed, the defeat of the recent Lisbon Treaty in Ireland was privately blamed by some politicians on a backlash from voters fed up with immigrants from new European Union states moving to Ireland. Obviously such sentiment could be exacerbated in a recessionary economy.

Ireland has done an incredible job of absorbing up to 500,000 foreigners in the past 10 years as the economy boomed. They went from practically zero immigration to a point where almost 10% of the population is now foreign born.

On frequent trips there I often reflected that the country was living a charmed life. As the economy boomed it seemed the Irish were effortlessly able to absorb the huge influx of immigrants. Much was made, and rightly so, of success stories such as that of a Nigerian emigrant becoming mayor of Portlaoise, ironically a large town not far removed from Carlow.

The fact is, though, that there was a significant number of Irish who were deeply uneasy about the radical change. The consequences of that for race relations and immigrant bashing were disguised by the rising economic tide.

However, now that the Celtic Tiger has begun to fade the issue of the absorption of so many foreigners has begun to creep up the agenda.

Conor Lenihan, the minister responsible for race relations, was quick out of the box condemning the Carlow incident, as were the GAA, which is keenly aware of the problem.

One of the most popular Gaelic footballers in Ireland is Jason Sherlock, who has an Asian mother. He is subject to extraordinary vilification at times during games for his native Dublin because of his Asian features.

Ireland will have to face the reality that the absorption issue, especially when it concerns black immigrants, is an arena fraught with difficulty and capable of being very divisive.

Ironically, it may be that if Obama is elected the worldwide message that will send about tolerance and opportunity may come home to roost in Ireland. Let us hope that is the message that gets through in the months and years ahead, and not that of the racial intolerance that reared it ugly head in Ireland so recently.