Watch: What Does 'Irishness' Look Like?

In 2018, Ola Majekodunmi created a video called 'What does Irishness Look Like?' to better understand the Irish identity. Here, she discusses the concept and success of the video further.

This video is a raw short-documentary based on personal stories from 15 Irish people who are often questioned about their identity. It challenges people's prejudice and opens a discussion on how we think about today's Irish identity.

This video was inspired by Lorraine Maher's #IamIrish project, which is based on the "persisting lack of representation of the Black Irish experience, to celebrate mixed-race Irish people and to question the concept of 'Irishness' and what an authentic Irish identity means for Irish communities today".

I premiered the video for the first time at the #IamIrish event in Bantry, Co.Cork where the West Cork Literary Festival was taking place. This is not a video that is meant to be preachy. It is a video that hopes to explore the emotions of young Irish people when their identity is being denied by the question 'but where are you REALLY from?'.

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After attending the #IamIrish event in the Axis Theatre in 2017, I came up with the idea to make a video about modern 'Irishness'. When I got home, I messaged a friend who had a degree in film and asked if he would be interested in helping me film this project. He agreed and, within a few days, I put a call out on my social media accounts that I was looking for people who didn't look 'stereotypically Irish' to collaborate with me.

We filmed in two different locations: Dublin's Temple Bar Meeting House Square and Raidió na Life's studios. Once we were set up, I hit record and let the contributors speak for themselves.

I did not interview them.

We agreed beforehand that they were free to say whatever they wanted to the camera regarding Irishness and identity, totally unfiltered.

At first, it was difficult to find an editor for the video as people were busy with other work but, eventually, I got onto a friend who had studied Film and TV Production, and he was happy to help edit the project. Editing was probably one of the toughest parts of this project, it was hard to decide at first what should stay or go.

Once we had cut the 30-minute video down to its final six minutes and 28 seconds, I released it to the public via YouTube on the 19th of July, 2018. It has since been viewed over 35,000 times.

I wanted to put the video out there to get a conversation going online and in our communities about how we think about Irishness and identity.

Ultimately, it was a success. It garnered lots of media attention from both Ireland and the UK, with famous figures such as Panti Bliss and Mary Lou McDonald tweeting their support.

I was so happy to learn that the video resonated with so many people and was amazed to hear that teachers and lecturers found the video useful and were showing it to their classes.

However, as much I was receiving lots of positive comments, love and support from people about the video, there were some negative comments too. On the morning of Friday, 20th of July, 2018, I started to receive one troll comment after another.

The comments eventually amounted to around 800 with 1,000 dislikes. Following this, I decided that the comments and dislikes needed to be disabled. The perception of what an Irish person looks like needs to be challenged, particularly in a 2020 multi-cultural Irish society where there is no one way to look Irish.

Ireland is a diverse nation - this should be celebrated, not feared. I believe that diversity is enriching Irish culture and society, not diluting it. This video is about tapping into people's consciousness and asking them to recognise the prejudices they may have.

The stories shared in the video are not comfortable to hear, but that is the whole point. We need to acknowledge that learning is key to doing better as a nation. We should be proud of how our country has adapted and changed.

'What Does "Irishness" Look Like?' is not my video, it is Ireland's video.

Watch: What Does 'Irishness' Look Like?

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