Contrary to some ill-informed comment, Ireland has been home to non-white people for many centuries.
A recently published book, Irish People of Colour: A social history of mixed race Irish in Britain and Ireland between 1700 and 2000, offers the first comprehensive social history of these Irish men and women in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries.
It describes what life, place and language was like for Irish people of colour in Britain and Ireland and examines Ireland’s role within the British Empire during the transatlantic slave trade.
The book also features the migration of people of colour across the British Isles, and changing social attitudes.
It provides a timely historical context for Irish people of colour today and is filled with the rich history of black Irish, some of whom are household names and other lesser-known, but equally fascinating, ones discovered by author Conrad Koza Bryan in his research.
Conrad was born in Dublin to an Irish mother and black South African father and because of Irish society’s views at the time he grew up in an institution.
After leaving that institution in Ireland he became an accountant and obtained a master’s degree in International Human Rights Law, from the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the University of Galway.
He became a human rights activist and advocate for people of African descent, particularly for the children of mixed African and Irish parents who were put into Irish institutions.
He is director and co-founder of The Association of Mixed-Race Irish (AMRI).
He is based here in the UK where he was a trustee and treasurer of Irish in Britain.
More recently he has gone into business with a non-profit humanitarian aid organisation.
His co-author Dr Chamion Caballero is the Director and co-founder of The Mixed Museum (TMM), an award-winning digital museum preserving the history of racial mixing in Britain.
Her widely published work specialises in race, ethnicity, families, and education.
Her research with Peter Aspinall on the history of racial mixing in twentieth century Britain was the basis of the 2011 BBC2 series Mixed Britannia, for which she was academic consultant.
A patron of the Irish in Britain organisation, Dame Professor Elizabeth Nneka Anionwu, 77, was born Elizabeth Mary Furlong in Birmingham in 1947 to an Irish mother and Nigerian father.
Her mother, Maureen Furlong, was in her second year studying classics at Cambridge and her father Lawrence Odiatu Victor Anionwu was studying law when they met. Her father went on to become a barrister and diplomat.
Dame Professor Elizabeth’s stepfather’s treatment of her as a child meant she grew up in children’s home run by Catholic nuns.
Inspired by a nun who cared for her childhood eczema, she left school at 16 with seven O-Levels to work as a school nurse assistant in Wolverhampton.
She continued her education to become a nurse, health visitor, tutor, co-created the first UK sickle-cell and thalassemia counselling centre in Brent, became a health care administrator, lecturer, and Professor of Nursing. She has the Order of Merit, is a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing.
She retired in 2007, and in 2016 she published her memoir, Mixed Blessings from a Cambridge Union and Dreams from My Mother in 2021.
Dame Elizabeth will be in conversation with Conrad at the Liverpool Irish Centre on Thursday 24 October at 9pm. Those attending the free event will will receive a complimentary copy of the book, Irish People of Colour.
The book has been published by The Association of Mixed-Race Irish with generous support and grants from the Government of Ireland’s Emigrant Support Programme, Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth through its International Decade for People of African Descent Fund and the Irish Research Council New Foundation Scheme 2023.
Conrad is an engaging speaker who brings this subject to light with humour and compassion.
All attendees will receive a complimentary copy of ‘Irish People of Colour’, worth £18.00+ courtesy of DFA funding
Irish People of Colour – Professor Dame Elizabeth in Conversation with Author Conrad Koza Bryan 9pm Thursday 24th October.
For more information, click here.
