When we think of the Caribbean, the predominant image is of a mixed race people, descended from mostly African slaves, Spanish settlers, and French and English adventures. However the Irish are also a significant, but mostly overlooked, part of that rich ethnic mix.
Someone who embodies that mix of African and Irish roots is the English West End performer and singer Andrea Pope, who was in Galway recently as part of preparations for the show Life Is A Cabaret, which comes to the Town Hall Theatre next month.
An Afro-Caribbean heritage
Andrea was born in Hillingdon, west London, to a father from Grenada, a small spice island in the Caribbean off the coast of Venezuela, and a mother from Dominica, part of the Lesser Antilles islands, also in the Caribbean.
Yet within Andrea’s Afro-Caribbean ethno-cultural make up, and surrounding her as she grew up, was a strong Irish presence and influence, which has played a significant role in her life.
At the time Andrea was born, Hillingdon was home to a predominantly Irish community. “There weren’t many Afro-Caribbeans or Asians there at all,” she tells me as we sit in the Town Hall on a Thursday morning for the interview. “It was mostly Irish who lived there.”
At home the Pope family played reggae records, with Johnny Nash, writer of ‘I Can See Clearly Now’ and ‘Stir It Up’ being a favourite, and meals cooked using Caribbean flavours and ingredients.
“There were dumplings and rice and peas cooked with coconut milk,” says Andrea. “Our Irish neighbours would often call over for and sample the food. They really loved the coconut milk and anything cooked in it.”
A family from one ethnic minority, living among another ethnic minority in a foreign capital might have been daunting, but the common experience of colonisation, emigration, and prejudice endured by both the Irish and Afro-Caribbeans helped create a bond between the communities.
“When my parents first came to Britain in the 1960s it was difficult for both the Afro-Caribbeans and the Irish to mix with the English,” says Andrea. “There was a lot of racism. My father had often been turned away from places that were renting rooms on account of him being black. This was the days of ‘No blacks, no dogs, no Irish’.
“The only people who would take him in and other Afro-Caribbeans were the Irish who had suffered similar prejudice and we did the same for Irish families. My father worked as a carpenter and so he knew many Irish people working in similar trades and on the building sites. Many Irish workmen stayed at our house.”
The Irish influence
The Irish also tended to look out for the Popes as one of the few black families in Hillingdon, a factor that would determine Andrea’s education and influence her choice of career.
“Mum couldn’t get me into any school so I missed my first year,” says Andrea. “I was outside playing one day and two Irish mothers were passing our house and asked why I wasn’t in school. My mother told them and they told her about the local priest who had just bought part of a building and his ambition was to develop it into a school.”
The priest was called Fr Scanlon, who was originally from County Mayo. Andrea remembers him as “a big character in the area, almost like an informal mayor”.
“It was the only school, which was called St Raphaels that would have me,” remembers Andrea. “I did Irish dancing there and learned Irish singing. That influenced the tone of my voice and singing style, which is not traditionally ‘black’.
“I played Molly Malone on the school stage when I was seven. There I was wheeling my barrow across the stage. We sang a lot of hymns and Irish songs at school and that gave me a love of being able to sing and I think there was a lot of encouragement for me at school to do that.
“Being the only black child in the school, I think that also made me aware of differences but also it was full of children of emigrants, there was a lot of self-esteem given to pupils and instilling a feeling that we could be anything we wanted to be.”
She retains fond memories of the school’s founder, Fr Scanlon, saying: “If I ever get the money I would love to make a film on his life, so if anyone out there remembers him, let us know.”
Yet the Irish influence does not end with the people and Andrea grew up around. Her own ethnic mix includes Irish ancestry, something her family have always been keen to acknowledge.
“The Caribbean is full of a mix of everyone so it was inevitable that some of the Irish carried over,” says Andrea. “My mother always said, ‘We have a little drop of Irish blood in us’ and she always maintained that the people in our Irish background would have originally come from the west of Ireland.”
The Irish connections to the Caribbean are extremely strong, stronger than many realise, and is one of the most overlooked aspects of our history.
The coat of arms and flag of the island of Montserrat feature a woman in a green dress, representing Ireland, holding a Christian cross and a gold harp. The island was settled in 1632 by a Irish settlers, after fleeing the nearby island of Nevis where they were indentured servants. Their descendants make up a significant part the population’s ethnic mix today.
Throughout the rest of the Caribbean the Irish have also been present. Some were plantation owners, many worked there as indentured servants, and after the 1648 Rebellion, during the Cromwellian era, thousands of Irish men, women, and children were banished to Barbados as slaves, eventually mixing with the African slaves.
“That is how the Irish came to Caribbean,” says Andrea. “Mostly we would not learn about the Irish connection from documented history, but from the stories that were passed down from generation to generation, oral history, and that’s how we would have heard it.”
So given the many ethnicities that make up Andrea’s heritage, how does she see herself? What does she consider her identity?
“I was born in England so I’m British. I’m of Afro-Caribbean origin, and there is a little bit of Chinese in the mix as well. There is also Irish and there has been a huge Irish influence on my life,” she says, adding with a laugh, “and my favourite colour is green. I love coming to Ireland and a lot of things remind me of Ireland and those first influences.”
Andrea will be one of the performers in Life Is A Cabaret which will be staged in the Town Hall Theatre on Tuesday March 15 and Wednesday 16 at 8pm. It will feature a cast of West End singers performing songs from classic musicals such as Cabaret, Porgy and Bess, Hairspray, and Les Miserables.
“It should be good fun,” says Andrea. “I will be singing songs from Hairspray and songs by Sondheim. The musical director will be Alan Smith who is also a West End pianist. All of us have sung in musicals in the West End. I’ve been in musicals since I was 14 and I love it.”
Tickets for Life Is A Cabaret are available from the Town Hall on 091 - 569777 and www.tht.ie
