‘Some people will not accept that I’m Irish’

HAILUU NETSIYANWA was born in Zimbabwe but his accent is more Howth than Harare, he plays Gaelic football and says he feels Irish.

However, he believes many people automatically decide on seeing him that he cannot “be” Irish.

Hailuu, now 23, moved here with his parents, both working professionals, when he was 14 and lived in Inchicore before moving to Blanchardstown.

His initial experiences of a fee-paying school were positive, but things changed when he moved to a Christian Brothers school in the inner city.

“I didn’t even have a notion of racism in the private school,” he says. “When I moved it was different.”

He says some of his classmates from the inner city had “slightly racist views” — “it was shocking and hard to understand, especially at the beginning”.

He says attitudes changed thanks to his prowess on the sports field, whether it was soccer of Gaelic football, although the “segregated” nature of the school, where groups stayed mostly with people of the same nationality, persisted.

He says common interests, whether through sport or the arts, are essential for increasing assimilation and integration.

He knew Toyosi Shittabey, a 15-year-old stabbed to death in Tyrellstown in west Dublin earlier this year. They played football together. He now feels the aftermath of that shocking attack has helped promote unity in Dublin 15, but talk of his footballing interests raise another issue.

A team comprising mostly of migrants with which he plays has a tie-in, not with an Irish League of Ireland club, but with Glentoran, north of the border.

* Hailuu was one of the contributors to a CD entitled “Belonging”, in which young people from different backgrounds gave their experiences of living in Ireland — www.immigrantcouncil.ie