“When I was 16, our home in the refugee camp was stormed by Israeli soldiers. I was at home with my father, my brother and two of my uncles ... They told us to run and as we ran, they were shooting after us.”
So begins the story of Asad, one of several people whose experience of seeking refuge in Ireland has been shared in a new book called Are We Human?
Published by Examcraft, the book combines stories of refugees, asylum seekers and migrants, featuring contributors from Palestine, Iran, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Sierra Leone, Congo, Sudan, Eritrea, Ghana, Nigeria, Lesotho and Somalia, whilst also drawing attention to “the compassion of Irish strangers who selflessly help those in need”.
Leah O’Shaughnessy and Melanie Martin, two secondary-school teachers from Tallaght Community School, co-wrote the book in the wake of the Dublin riots.
The pair said that the riots that took place in the capital’s city centre on November 23rd last year were “one of the major catalysts for the book” and sparked “conversations about the landscape of Ireland at that moment in time and actually how it was very frightening for a lot of people”. For O’Shaughnessy, the scenes that unfolded that night left her “almost paralysed with fear”.
“I was at home with my husband and we were watching it on the telly and I just remember I was gripped with fear. My husband is Irish-African and he had to travel for work the next day ... When we woke up, I begged him not to leave the house.”
She recalls reflecting on the night’s events as she taught her classes, “I just thought if I’m gripped with that fear, this very privileged white woman ... look at all these children in front of me, children of colour, and the fear that they have to feel.”
Having previously published their first book Resilience and Me, a compilation of stories from their students, in response to the pandemic, Martin and O’Shaughnessy said they wanted to go “one step further” with Are We Human?
“Examcraft trusted us to create a book to go into the national market and not just the school market in order to try to challenge the voice that was out there and stand up to the fearmongering and stereotyping that we were seeing.”
There are people who have the power in this country to fix the homelessness crisis and they are not the people that are sleeping in tents
— Teacher and author Leah O'Shaughnessy
In the initial stages of working on the book, O’Shaughnessy and Martin said some friends and family expressed their concern over potential backlash they might face. “They’ve said why would you do that, you’re mad.”
“That was something me and Mel discussed at the very beginning ... We both looked at each other and said when I see the struggle they’ve been through and what they’ve overcome then I can take all of the backlash and I’ll take it for them because they deserve a platform and they deserve for their voices to be heard,” says O’Shaughnessy.
Martin shares how the pair conducted a series of interviews to compile the stories featured in the book, reflecting on the power of fostering personal relationships with people in doing so.
“Initially we thought people might be able to write their own stories but actually realised how that instantly is a barrier ... we figured out fairly quickly that you have to connect before you do anything else.”
“We had some people that remained anonymous to us, had their cameras off on screen and then as they got to know us, they turned their cameras on and have become our friends,” she adds.
O’Shaughnessy highlights authenticity as a key part of this process: “We weren’t trying to push any kind of agenda by only telling certain stories. We told the stories that we found.”
“We didn’t pick and choose which stories went in and which stories didn’t. We went on this journey, we met people and whoever shared their story is in that book. It wasn’t like we laid them all on a table and picked the best of a bunch.”
After listening to an interview their teachers did with RTÉ's Oliver Callan, the students at Tallaght Community School were curious about how the asylum seeking application works.
“We had a full lesson where we listened to an interview that me and Mel did last week and we were very much challenged on the issue,” says O’Shaughnessy, who teaches more senior students in the school.
“We’d pause it at key points and discuss it and afterwards I read a story from the book to them. When they heard I was creating a book with Mel about refugees and asylum seekers, there might have been a little bit of side-eyeing and like a pause, but when I read that story to them you could feel the empathy in the room... It has the power to completely change your perspective.”
Speaking of how online misinformation about immigration can shape dialogue, O’Shaughnessy says this was evident in the conversations that were had in her classroom. “The kids are on social media all the time and I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, they do consume some kind of content that is anti-immigration, whether it’s deliberate or not.”
The book’s cover image, designed by Renato da Cunha and Ana Carolina Amaral Fernandes, depicts a man’s face in black and white with his eyes obscured by the title.
Martin shares the inspiration behind this creative decision: “We didn’t want to reveal someone’s face. Often we become desensitised because social media and the media will give you the most graphic image. Ana covers the eyes, because the eyes are the windows to the soul.”
“And when you dehumanise somebody, you’ve taken that away from them and the image from the cover of the book very much represents a cohort that have carried the brunt of the dehumanisation, those young men, who actually are more so a target for hate,” O’Shaughnessy continues.
The teachers hope to dispel some damaging misconceptions about immigration by sharing these stories, highlighting how “immigration gets tangled up with the homelessness crisis”.
“There are people who have the power in this country to fix the homelessness crisis and they are not the people that are sleeping in tents. With the anger and frustration, let’s just channel that down the right alleyways. I always say Ireland is not full, Ireland is abandoned.”
“It doesn’t have to be us or them. We can show concern and empathy for every human being.”
The pair foresee the project growing as they feel “a responsibility to those people who shared those stories”, perhaps developing into a podcast or a video series on Instagram.
“We are not politicians, we’re not policymakers and we would never claim to be experts in any way, shape or form but what we are is we are two people who believe in the same values and those values are just that every human being deserves a life of dignity and safety,” says O’Shaughnessy.
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