Changing Ireland - Seán Óg Ó hAilpín on being "a lost kid" until they put him "on a steady path" скачать в хорошем качестве

Changing Ireland - Seán Óg Ó hAilpín on being "a lost kid" until they put him "on a steady path"

Hurling legend Seán Óg Ó hAilpín speaking at a seminar on ‘Embracing Diversity’ in Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo, Ireland, on October 18, 2019. Recording by: Allen Meagher, 'Changing Ireland'. Seán Óg introduces himself in Fijian, then switches to English: I’m half-Fijian, half Irish, but if someone was to ask me ‘Who am I?’, my first answer would be ‘I’m a hundred percent proud Irishman’. And, like a lot of the population here in Ballyhaunis, we share the same kind of story in terms of we don’t look Irish, but I consider myself Irish every day of the week. That would be ironic, because if I was to roll back the clock 30 years ago, I hated Ireland, didn’t want to be here. Hated everything about it - the weather, the people. But to to go back a small bit before that, you have to understand my background. I’m from a mixed background. My dad is from County Fermanagh - a very proud Fermanagh man, God love him. And my mum is from - actually I say Fiji - but she is technically from a place called Rotuma. When I look at an atlas (Here’s how) I can tell if it’s a good atlas or not. I go to the South Pacific and look for my mum’s island and if it’s not on it, it’s a rubbish atlas. Rotuma is a very small, tiny island in the South Pacific that is part of the Fijian island group. I found it easier to say ‘She’s Fijian’ when I was asked ‘Where is your mum from?’, because when you say ‘Rotuma’, you’ve to spend about 30 minutes saying where it is, how to get there and so forth. But my mum’s a very proud Rotuman. But I grew up in Sydney, Australia. My dad emigrated from Ireland in the 1970s and worked for 30 years. He met my mum when he went on holidays on mainland Fiji. My mum had left her small island for mainland Fiji like a lot of Rotumans do. I won’t explain what happened after that, but out comes me. So, my first eight years were in Sydney. What a great childhood! What a great life! It was everything a young kid could ask for. Going around in shorts. I barely wore runners or shoes and lived on a diet of ice-cream. Kylie Minogue and Jason O’Donovan were my pop idols. So imagine the shock when, in 1988, dad comes home from work and announces that we’re going to Ireland. Shortly after that, we land in the metropolis of Cork city, oh Jesus, in the depths of winter in 1989. You can imagine I’m a shattered kid at this stage. I had great friends in Sydney. In my neighbourhood, there were different ethnic groups, so I had Lebanese neighbours on one side, Greeks across the road and Italians and Russians up the road. When we landed, it was like the invasion of the martians. The Ó hAilpíns landing in the northside of Cork city. I mean this bluntly: The first three years were the toughest years, especially for my mum. It was so hard to adjust to the climate. I wore 4 or 5 jumpers constantly. It was unbelievably cold for the first year. And trying to understand a Cork people - I know I talk like one now, but trying to understand one back then was like trying to decipher Hindu, it was impossible. But basically - when you look at the people we were living with… we didn’t look… to fit in. and unfortunately, people will let you know about that - sadly. And I’m being blunt about that, but it is reality. So, you can imagine as a 10/11 year old kid, I’m frustrated, I’m angry and I’m questioning the motives to come to Ireland. Dad painted it as a great place. But in those early years I didn’t experience that great place. I used to pray that dad brought us over and there was a return ticket and one day he’d pull it out and say ‘Look, we’re going back to Sydney’. I prayed for the first Christmas, the second Christmas and the third Christmas, but there was no return ticket. There are a lot of things that our parents decide for us and, when I look back to that time, I wouldn’t agree with 99% of them. But unfortunately when you’re a young kid growing up, you (hope) they made the right choices. But there’s one decision that the parents made that I will forever be grateful for and it changed my life in Ireland. That was to get involved in sport. My dad enrolled me in the local GAA club - Na Piarsaigh. ...