{"id":49270,"date":"2016-09-30T14:28:55","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T14:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=49270"},"modified":"2017-07-23T16:08:47","modified_gmt":"2017-07-23T16:08:47","slug":"growing-up-in-ireland-i-was-the-only-black-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=49270","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Growing up in Ireland I was the only black person\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Growing up in Ireland I was the only black person\u2019<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Irish Times<\/a>
\n2016-09-30<\/p>\n

Anthea McTeirnan<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/a>
\nLorraine Maher, aged nine and today, who is curating the exhibition of photos of mixed-race Irish people at the London Irish Centre<\/a> in Camden<\/a>.<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

A new exhibition in London challenges the perceptions of what Irish people look like<\/em><\/p>\n

Lorraine Maher\u2019s son Aaron died from cancer two years ago. Aaron, who along with his brothers, Dwayne, Darnel and R\u00f9-ffel, had visited his mother\u2019s homeplace in Carrick-on-Suir<\/a>, Co Tipperary<\/a>, many times and met his Irish family often, was proud to be Irish. Aaron would have chosen to play soccer for the Republic of Ireland<\/a>, no doubt about that. He was also a fervent Tipperary supporter.<\/p>\n

Maher visits his grave often.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the graveyard in London<\/a>, he has his Irish flag and his Tipperary flag on his grave with his St Lucia flag<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

His dad is from St Lucia<\/a>, and Aaron was proud of his dual heritage.<\/p>\n

Aaron\u2019s photograph is on his gravestone, too. \u201cI see people looking at the grave like they are thinking: what has Ireland got to do with him?\u201d<\/p>\n

But Aaron was proud of his Irishness, she says. \u201cHe had two heritages and both made him proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though it is now more common in Britain<\/a> to use the term \u201cdual heritage\u201d rather than \u201cmixed race\u201d, Maher is not completely sold on the newer description.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is challenging because my only heritage is Irish,\u201d she says. \u201cSo that is what the conversation I wanted to have is about. For mixed-race Irish people our ancestry, our roots, our blood are Irish.\u201d…<\/p>\n

…Maher was never an \u201cimmigrant\u201d. She grew up in 1960s-1970s Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, where she was the only black person she knew. After Presentation Convent Primary, she moved to Scoil Mhuire in Greenhill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m mixed race. I identify as a black woman from Ireland, who is quite pale,\u201d she laughs. \u201cThe only heritage I ever had was Irish heritage.\u201d Maher is aware of her other ancestry, \u201cbut it is not important at the moment for me\u201d, she says…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new exhibition in London challenges the perceptions of what Irish people look like<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,28,8,10],"tags":[25080,246,16528,25079,147,16526],"class_list":["post-49270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-europe","category-media-archive","category-uk","tag-anthea-mcteirnan","tag-ireland","tag-irish-times","tag-lorraine-maher","tag-photography","tag-the-irish-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49270"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49270\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53944,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49270\/revisions\/53944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}