People are shocked that the daughter of Nigerian parents can speak Irish

Ola Majekodunmi is a fluent Irish speaker after her Nigerian parents sent her to an Irish-medium school

Irish student Ola Majekodunmi was just seven months old when her Nigerian parents sought asylum in Ireland, leaving their four older children in Lagos.

Yet when a flyer for their local Irish-medium school (referred to in Ireland as a Gaelscoil) Gaelscoil Lios na nÓg came under their door, they thought it was worth a shot.

Majekodunmi got on well in the Dublin school and she decided to continue her Irish-medium education with her classmates at Coláiste Íosagáin, despite it sometimes being tough for her parents to help her with her homework.

Read more: Learning Irish for the first time - a challenge and a joy

Lovely piece about broadcaster with @raidionalife and ambassador for @AfricaDay @olamajekodunmi1, and her passion for the Irish language.#Gaeilge #AfricaDay2018
https://t.co/L7J5F1ZbEJ

— Conradh na Gaeilge (@CnaG) May 23, 2018

“The passion for the language really came to me in fifth and sixth year, particularly after I studied Fill Arís by Sean ó Ríordáin. I found that poem very, very passionate,” she told the Irish Times, adding that it helped her to see parallels between the attitudes her own mother tongue would have faced as a British colony.

“It still surprises people that a person of color would speak Irish,” Majekodunmi added.

Are you learning Irish? Let us know where you go to classes or what means you use to learn in the comments section, below.

H/T: Irish Times

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