The story behind Ireland's unofficial colony in the Caribbean, on the island of Montserrat.
In 2013 documentary maker Joe Kearney was presented with a challenge by a retired Kilkenny farmer and philatelist, who showed him a postage stamp from the early 1900s for Montserrat.
The stamp depicted a red-haired white girl in a green dress with her arm draped about a black cross. She looks mournfully into the distance and at her knee is the harp of Ireland.
The challenge was to find out how a Caribbean island uses this symbol as its coat of arms when over ninety per cent of Montserratians are of African heritage.
In this clip, Joe meets historian and stamp collector Philly Lynch, who talks about Irish child slaves and how they ended up enslaved in Montserrat.
From its initial colonisation, Montserrat became known as a refuge for those escaping religious persecution on other islands, especially Roman Catholics. The Irish were provided with smallholdings for tobacco cultivation, however, when this industry switched to more labour intensive sugar production, slaves were found to be a necessary part of the enterprise.
This was the beginning of the era of Irish slave ownership in Montserrat.
The truth behind Ireland's involvement in slavery, slave ownership and the horrors of sugar plantations emerges from testimonies of islanders and from the guardians of the island's history.
Narrated and produced by Joe Kearney, 'Sugar and the Blue Eyed Slave' was broadcast on 27 July
2013.
