Black & Irish co-founder, Leon Diop: 'I’m 100% of everything I am — not half of each'

'I’m able to engage with both sides of my heritage — able to be myself and enjoy life'

Leon Diop pictured at this year’s An Post Irish Book Awards which were held in the Convention Centre, Dublin.

I grew up in Tallaght with my mam, a white Irish Catholic woman, and for the first few years of my life, my dad. He was a black Senegalese Muslim man.

I got a lot of crap from people engaging in racist behaviour from both sides, white groups and black groups. I wasn’t black enough or white enough.

I was fine with the academic but I struggled with behavioural patterns that were not the most positive. That manifested in the form of anger — getting in fights at school — things like that.

My mam and dad divorced when I was about six, he moved to France when I was 12 and passed away when I was 16. I didn’t give myself the proper time to grieve because I had issues with him.

My biological father was a very troubled man. He came from a different culture. His idea of family was very different from how my mam or society would view it.

The star of my life is my mam. She always made sure I wasn’t wanting for anything. She had to work very hard and at times, allow other people to look after us.

The biggest challenge for me has been my identity from adolescence into my early 20s. I was struggling to see where I fit into the world.

I thought I was the only mixed-race person who had this issue but after starting Black & Irish, I found a lot of mixed-race people struggle with the same thing.

I envision it [this identity struggle] as a game of tug of war with myself in my mind. I felt like I needed to identify with one group or another and that was such a weight.

Ultimately, I was allowing other people to dictate how I felt and behaved which is not helpful. This is me taking a look at myself and saying; ‘Actually, I’m 100% of everything I am - not half, not 50% of each.’

I’m able to engage with both sides of my heritage and history now. I’m able to be myself and enjoy life.

I grew up in a lower socioeconomic household. While my mam worked very hard we were not always flush. We did have worries and concerns.

I could have gone down a different route. At times, I’ve gotten myself into trouble and been around dangerous people. With some of the situations I've been in, I could be in prison.

Going to Maynooth University was a real eye-opener for me. I went to the Gaeltacht in 2008 but other than that, I had been in a bubble.

Author Leon Diop at a special tree made of books which was created for the Dublin Book Festival 2023 winter garden. Pic: Leon Farrell.

My proudest achievement was starting Black & Irish and building a community that challenges the status quo in Ireland, showing that there is an identity out there that is authentic and growing.

My fiancée Katie Deegan is the one I always turn to. She's similar to me in that she’s pragmatic and she wants to solve problems.

Whenever I need a bit of comfort — I can get bogged down with the work that I do — I go to my mam. She reminds me that I'm my own person, as well as someone who is running an organization.

I would have loved to become more comfortable with myself sooner. Yet at the same time, I'm glad that I went on that journey because it's enabled me to help others.

I'd love to go back and have a 10-minute conversation with the 15-year-old me and say; ‘Hey Leon, you have great potential. You don't need to be so worried about what other people think.’

In the next 20 years, we could see a mass influx of people having to leave their homes because there's no food, because it's too hot, or because water levels are rising.

It's causing a lot of frustration in people because we're not able to deal with people who need housing in Ireland.

I understand why people feel they want to protest but when it turns to attacking people and burning out tents, that is something that we desperately need to get hold of right now because this isn't going away.

People call me a bleeding-heart socialist because I say that people should be cared for. I don't think wanting to make sure people are safe and warm is the problem.

There's a real lack of understanding and empathy for someone coming [to Ireland] because they are at risk of being bombed.

We know what it’s like to be colonised, to emigrate, to have a serious famine that has harmed our population. Ireland should be the global leader in [handling asylum seekers].

I had a court case in 2019. I was the plaintiff. I'm a big advocate for justice. Maybe I’d go down the law route [if I went down another fork in the road]. I'd have to be a barrister or a judge.

• Co-founder of Black & Irish, Leon Diop won the International Education Services Teen and Young Adult Book of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards 2023 for Black and Irish: Legends, Trailblazers and Everyday Heroes, co-written with Briana Fitzsimons