A group which promotes interculturalism ran a sewing workshop in Lucan, Co Dublin, on Friday to which anyone in the community was welcome and among those meeting were women from Nigeria, Sudan and Donegal.

One of the organisers Latifah Olutunde said she attended a party recently in a Dublin hotel to celebrate the Igbo culture of southern Nigeria.

“My friend who booked the room for the party, he told the hotel it was for a birthday.

“I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you just tell them it was for a party for Igbo culture, and he shook his head, said, ‘You know yourself’. He was afraid they wouldn’t take the booking, they wouldn’t understand or would be afraid of what it was, or even that it would just be awkward. All the time, you are keeping your head down.”

Although in Ireland since 2001, having come though the asylum process and granted leave to remain in 2004, the single mother still feels she is an ‘outsider’.

Based in Lucan, she is involved in Afra-Eorpach, a group of people in the Dublin area who meet regularly to promote interculturalism.

They say people leaving direct provision need far greater supports and guidance integrating into their new society and that they did not get this and still feel lost at times.

Caused depression

Getting her “papers” in 2004 was “freedom” but Latifah’s difficulties caused depression and hospitalisation. She found negotiating the school system, getting work and managing her finances very difficult.

“When you are here in Ireland on your own you don’t have generations of family to show you what to do. In Ireland a lot of life is about who you know.”

Currently trying to start her own catering business, she says she has not been able to access a kitchen, such as in a community centre, to try out her wares. “People I think are afraid of the food I will cook in their kitchen. When they hear me they don’t want me to use their kitchen.”

She says many in the African community face daily racism.

Busola Shogbamimu, from Nigeria, has been in Ireland for 18 years and is a professional chef. She works in a hotel.

“Recently a man came into the hotel. He saw me, and he went to the manger and said: ‘There’s a black woman in the kitchen’. I don’t let their negative thoughts affect who I am.”

Among the women at the workshop was Joy Moore, from Donegal. She said she was interested in sewing, but also in meeting new people. “I have eight children, three of them in Australia, and it’s opened a whole world. I’ve really enjoyed this morning. I’ve made a lovely cushion and met some really lovely people.”

Latifah says among measures to ease integration would be training on how to negotiate housing, healthcare, and employment; and the presence of non-Irish staff in the schools.

“For our children in school, they only ever meet Irish teachers and staff. Like the adults, sometimes our children feel like they’re in the society, but not part of it.”