A Dublin human rights activist, Mr Brendan Butler, has been mistakenly targeted with anti-immigrant hate mail.
A recent newspaper article by his namesake, Mr Brendan Butler of IBEC, which argued in support of anti-racism measures was smeared with excrement and posted to the Swords home of the human rights campaigner.
Mr Butler said he was shocked and threatened by the mail which was symptomatic of a rise in racism.
"I find it just incredible really and obviously offensive," he said.
Mr Butler, the deputy principal of Loreto College in Swords, Co Dublin, has campaigned about international human rights abuses for more than 20 years. He is a founding member of the El Salvador Support Committee and Ireland-Algeria Solidarity Group.
The opinion piece by Mr Butler, director of social policy with the Irish Business Employers Confederation, appeared in The Irish Times on January 5th. In it Mr Butler questioned whether the State had the infrastructure to cope with the 340,000 immigrants needed to meet the demands of the labour market until 2006. He said increasing evidence of a growing number of racist attacks raised very serious issues for Government, policy-makers, employers, employees and society in general.
Mr Butler in Swords says he believes the person who sent him the cutting last week mistook him for its author, and probably obtained his address from his own letters to The Irish Times.
Mr Butler intends reporting the incident to the police. He said he agreed with the sentiment of the opinion piece.
Mr Butler also criticised the government for its failure to introduce a £4.5 million anti-racism awareness campaign due to start last autumn.
IBEC's Mr Butler said last night he was personally disgusted by the act. "It enforces the point we are trying to make, that there is a lot of racism bubbling under the surface. It again brings forward the need to get the Government's public awareness campaign going."
The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform is due to appoint a steering committee with an independent chairperson to oversee the awareness programme shortly. The campaign is now expected to start within weeks.