Helen Fallon, Deputy Librarian at Maynooth out of school to work on the these churches tend to have University meets African people living in farm at a very young age. services with a lot of singing Ireland. Through sharing stories we can reach We attended Primary School and dancing, which makes in Kano. Although, it was them appealing to Nigerians, a better understanding of each other and our a Catholic school, many of as celebrating our faith is very hopes and dreams. the pupils were Muslim and much part of our culture. there was an acceptance of different faiths. On Saturdays, Encountering Nigeria in Irish Reverend Sisters from Ireland the St Louis order, came While on placement at to the church in the school Maynooth University Library, compound for catechism as part of a course I was classes and to prepare us for doing, I became aware of the sacraments. the Maynooth University Ken From Nigeria to Kilcock: Abulu Saro-Wiwa Collection. I was a Obasi tells her family’s story… We moved around a bit with student when Saro-Wiwa and my father’s (even during eight others were executed Early Days the Biafran War) and in 1978, for protesting about Shell’s was born in Ondo State, Western Nigeria. I belong we returned to the south Left to right: Helen Fallon, Philomena Abulu Obasi and destruction of their homeland, her daughter Christeen. to the Edo ethnic group. My people are traditionally to Benin-City. I attended St (Photo: P. Abulu Obasi) Ogoni, in the Niger Delta. known for their bronze carvings and royalty. We Maria Goretti Girls Grammar I hadn’t known that he had Iwere a family of eleven children. The fi rst seven were School, Benin-City. Reverend Sister Henrietta Power, worked closely with Irish Sr Majella McCarron. Because boys, so my arrival, as the 8th, was greeted with who died at age 97 years in November 2020, was the of my interest and involvement in these areas, I was much joy. My father worked for a British company Principal of the school from 1962 to 1984. She did so invited to contribute a chapter, with colleagues, to a that made mattresses and other foam products. He much for us and I remember her with such fondness. book to mark the 25th anniversary of the execution of had primary certifi cate which was a good standard of Ken Saro-Wiwa. There was also a poetry competition education when he was growing up. He was working My encounters with Irish missionaries were really which my daughter, Christeen, and I entered for and in Zaria, Northern Nigeria and went back to his home positive. In addition to getting a really good education, we were both delighted when our poems were selected village in the Mid-West, to fi nd a wife. He married my we saw them visiting the leper colony, bringing food to for publication. mother, Modupe, a Yoruba name which means “we people who were considered outcasts and working in thank God”. It was an arranged match like in Ireland a hospitals. We admired them. In school, they were strict I believe that poetry and writing can help us explore century or so ago. He paid a bride price to her family but nice all the same. I attended various universities complex issues. In my poem “Smell of the Fish,” I tried and she relocated to where he resided up north after on my way to a master’s degree, later working in the to capture my memories of unpolluted communal living the traditional marriage rites. She remained with him banking and fi nance, oil and gas, event management we experienced as a society through resilience, love as wife for 51 years, until his death in 2004. She died sectors. and sharing. My daughter Christeen’s poem, “Know fi ve years later, in 2009. Where”, explores a false reality and how reality can Ireland be perceived differently by every individual. It explores Ours was a Catholic home and her faith was a I got married in 2001. Life was very challenging in being satisfi ed and happy in a different realm created source of great joy to my mother. She was in various Nigeria and I lost my job. My marriage didn’t work out by oneself. prayer societies in the parish and my brothers served and it was hard being a single parent in that society. as altar boys and we all helped clean and maintain I felt we could have a better life in Ireland and came Looking to the Future the church. She was determined all her children here with my two children in 2014. The I hope to see my children complete their college would be educated, she herself having been taken gave my family a lot of support, both in my fi rst parish education and fi nd fulfi lling work. I’ve been involved in Clondalkin and in my current parish in Kilcock, in some community development projects and would particularly in the early stages when I was out of work. like to continue to facilitate workshops on adjusting to Our Catholic faith has sustained us in diffi cult times. an all embracing diverse environment on acceptability I’m a Eucharistic Minister and my children are Readers and understanding of the uniqueness of other cultures with Coca’s Catholic Church. My son Timothy and ethnicity. A future where we can contribute our attends a Catholic College in Spain. My daughter, best to the unity and positive development to a nation Christeen, is in fi rst year in Trinity College Dublin. that has invested and cared for us. When I was at school in Nigeria, Sister Henrietta, often talked about Trinity College. Little did I think in those I would want the people of Ireland to appreciate days that my daughter would study there. themselves the way we appreciate them on the contribution in the education of many nations, I enjoy being part of the community, through the especially in Africa. I am a proud product of the Catholic Catholic Church in Kilcock. Many Nigerians who come School, both primary and secondary. I would hope we to Ireland are Catholic, but change to Pentecostal will continue to honour all those missionaries, dead churches. I think they feel more at home in churches and alive, who travelled so far away from home to where there are a lot of other African people and also educate the world, especially, the Girl Child. ■

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