My Life with Maeve Dalton: 'We all looked so different to one another — but our mother treated us all the same'

Maeve Dalton, Glounthaune, discusses how the 'black babies' trope of schoolyard Irish charity led to a misunderstanding, and recalls life in a mixed-race family

Maeve Dalton at home in Glounthaune. Picture: Eddie O'Hare

Our error of judgment might have gone unnoticed, had I not declared the cash to my mum that day.

I was in Junior Infants when a little girl in my class began slipping coins my way each week, in the misguided belief that charity begins in the classroom.