"IRISH people are constantly reminded that they are not entitled to an equal place in British society, says a report published by Britain's Commission for Racial Equality.
The report details instances of Irish people denied jobs, services or educational opportunities in Britain because of racial prejudice.
It was presented in Dublin yesterday by the National Co-ordinating Committee for the European Year against Racism.
The committee's chairwoman, Ms Anastasia Crickley, drew a parallel between the reports findings and racist remarks concerning refugees in Ireland.
"There are important parallels that can be drawn from this report about the recent, often negative response of many Irish people to refugees, asylum seekers and economic migrants coming to Ireland in recent months," she said.
"Britain has been a place of welcome and opportunity for many Irish people," said the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Sir Herman Ouseley, in a statement.
"Their positive contribution to the British economy, culture and political life is a vital and undeniable one. Yet despite this there is evidence of inequality, discrimination and prejudice."
The report estimates that people born in Ireland, and their children, comprise 4.6 per cent of the population of Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales) and as much as 11.5 per cent of the population of Greater London.
Britain's Irish-born population consists of two main groups: people who left Ireland in the 1950s to work mainly in manual occupations; and younger immigrants, many of them highly qualified, who arrived in the 1980s.
The report recommends that the Irish be categorised as a distinct ethnic group in censuses, and when measures are being undertaken to monitor the treatment of ethnic minorities.