Those unfamiliar with what is happening in Ireland are occasionally taken aback by some of the news stories emerging from the country. In 2021, for instance, a black African refugee won the Miss Ireland beauty contest. The fastest runner in Ireland, and the holder of the national record for the 60-metre race, is Israel Olatunde, whose parents are Nigerian. Seeing black people of African heritage rise to such prominence in a Celtic nation tells us that what was, until a few decades ago, an ethnically homogenous, fairly conservative, and almost wholly Catholic nation on the very fringe of Europe, has changed…READ MORE