What a Difference a Day Makes: Rapper Raphael Olympio on the man who changed everything

Raised in Cork, rapper and poet Raphael Olympio fled Togo, West Africa, along with his family, when he was five. He tells Helen O’Callaghan about a neighbour in Togher who taught him the game of hurling, helping Olympio and his family to integrate. And how, inspired by this childhood mentor, he himself now works in integration.

Raphael Olympio: was mentored by the late John Egan, and now mentors in turn through music

We’d just moved to a housing estate in Togher, I was seven. 

We’d moved from Togo, West Africa – first to a direct provision centre in Clonakilty, then Cork City.