Their head scarves frame faces that are unmistakably Irish and their Dublin accents seem out of place among the strictures of their religious dress.

They are unlikely targets of racial abuse, but Patricia Fitzpatrick, 43, and Lesley Carter, 35, have been spat upon, called Pakis, Osama Bin Laden and even “Jewish bastards” on the streets of their native city.

As converts to Islam they have joined Ireland’s estimated 26,000-strong Muslim population, which has become the focus of controversy since the discovery of planned terrorist attacks in Britain two weeks ago.

Dr Shaheed Satardien, a member of the Supreme Islamic Council, said Muslim youths in Ireland were “embracing fundamentalism”, and even travelling to Pakistan to participate in terrorism schools.

Fourteen Irish-Islamic groups issued a joint statement to repudiate this. But last week two Algerian-born Irish citizens — a man and a woman — were arrested under anti-terrorist legislation in Wales. Although both were released without charge, the media coverage did nothing to improve intercommunity harmony in Ireland.

“I always felt people would leave me alone because I’m Irish. But now when they look at the newspaper and see the story about Irish Muslims arrested in Wales, I wonder what people think of me today?” Fitzpatrick says.

She accepts that there may be a tiny element of extremism in Ireland. But it’s among Muslims who have moved here, not those born here. “There are terrorists in every society,” she said. “Were all the Irish people in the IRA? Don’t judge us all.”

Her Muslim name is Saffiyyah and she was raised in York Street, Dublin, in a working-class family of 13. Carter grew up in Ballybrack.

They refused to be interviewed individually because neither can be left alone with a man. So one sits quietly while the other talks.

Carter clasps her hands together and stares at her feet while Fitzpatrick explains that at the age of 23 she married a Libyan national, Khairi, eight days after meeting him and now has six children aged from four to 18.

Fitzpatrick had converted to Islam two years earlier. “Something was missing for me. I started searching for answers. They had just finished building the mosque on the South Circular Road and I saw the moon shape and said to a friend: ‘Let’s go in and find out what it’s all about.’

“I hid it from my family. I couldn’t tell my brothers I wanted to be a Muslim. I used to go in the summer with an umbrella over my head. But they spotted me.”

Her family thought she had joined a cult, presuming Muhammad was the cult leader. One brother threatened to burn down the mosque.