In Irish orphanages, being ‘coloured’ was a defect. I wish Mam had lived to see Black Lives MatterPosted in Articles, Autobiography, Biography, Europe, Media Archive on 2020-07-05 20:03Z by Steven |
In Irish orphanages, being ‘coloured’ was a defect. I wish Mam had lived to see Black Lives Matter
The Irish Times
2020-07-04
Jess Kavanagh
 Jess Kavanagh with Lorraine Maher of I Am Irish |
Black Irish Lives: Multiculturalism is seen as new. But Ireland has generations of mixed-race people
I’m not a fan of weddings, but I made sure not to miss my cousin Jamie’s big day. Jamie and I always got along; racially ambiguous like myself, he looks more indigenous Latin American via Dublin 3 but is actually southeast Asian-Italian. After the wedding another cousin, annoyed at her lack of an invitation to the dinner, is spitting some low-grade venom as I roll a cigarette. I tune in at the worst moment.
“I don’t know why anyone ever told you your grandfather was a doctor. He was a sailor – and everyone knew that.”
I’m taken aback. I don’t react. If you’ve experienced racism you know this moment: a surreal outburst, wildly out of context. It happens so quickly you tend to be left feeling only confusion and mild amusement. The rage creeps in hours, maybe days later.
My biological grandfather was a Nigerian medical student and my biological grandmother was a nurse when they met. The story of their affair changes. Until I was in my 20s I was told he was a student at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland when they met, but that has shifted at times to them meeting in the UK. My mother was adopted as a newborn from a religious-run institution in Blackrock, Co Dublin, and my aunts and uncles – Nigerian-Irish, Indian-Irish, Filipino-Italian and North African-Irish – were also adopted as babies…
Read the entire article here.