The publisher of a schoolbook meant to encourage diversity has apologised after portraying a typical Irish family as cabbage-chewing, potato-munching xenophobes.

The offending material is being pulled by the Educational Company of Ireland after uproar in Ireland, where the book was part of the curriculum for 14 and 15-year-olds.

In a chapter called “All Different, All Equal”, an all-white and red-headed Irish family are depicted on a farm wearing Aran jumpers.

“Family A” eat  “potatoes, bacon and cabbage every day” and “do not like change or difference”.

The children “get told off if we mix with people with a different religion from ours as they would be a bad influence”.

The two children are shown Irish dancing. All their relatives are Irish and they are banned from playing “foreign games” or watching films made outside of Ireland.

The family are compared unfavourably with a mixed-race family, who are shown outside Rome’s coliseum.

In contrast, they “love change and difference”, eat “curry, pizza and Asian food”, travel internationally and visit art galleries.

“Family B” says in the book, “We have relations in London and Australia and our family is part Irish, part Romanian and part Dutch”.

“Most years we house-swap with a family in a different country. It is a great way to meet people and learn about other cultures and societies. It makes you realise that, when you get to know them, people are more alike than different.”

‘Disturbing’ depiction

Politicians attacked the stereotyping of the Irish family after the offending chapter was reported in the media.

Sorca Clarke, of Sinn Fein, the opposition party, said it echoed  “caricatures of Irish families” that had “been depicted in racist tropes for generations”.

Mattie McGrath, the Independent MP, said the depiction was “disturbing”. He called on the education minister “to clarify how such a textbook, which not only misrepresents Irish families but does so in a prejudiced manner, was approved for publication in the first place”.

The Department of Education said it was the responsibility of each Irish school to pick the materials it used to teach the curriculum.

“Any concerns regarding material published in textbooks should be raised with the publisher themselves,” a spokesman said.

The publishers said the textbook used “exaggeration and hyperbole” to help pupils understand Irish equality legislation and the “importance of diversity in our lives”.

“On closer inspection, we now appreciate that our approach should have been different and accept that it has caused upset and anger, even though this was not our intention,”  the Educational Company of Ireland said.

“We have taken the decision to replace this activity and we apologise for any hurt caused.”