Although Hong Kong is a globalised Chinese city with a British colonial legacy, many of its most famous streets commemorate long-forgotten Irish luminaries. Des Voeux Road, with its luxury shops and banking headquarters, is named after George des Voeux, who came from a Huguenot family in Co Laois, while Hennessy Road, home to one of the city’s nightlife hubs, takes its name from Cork-born John Pope Hennessy.
They were among nine Irish-born governors of Hong Kong after it became a British colony in 1841 and they feature in a fascinating new book The Irish in Hong Kong by Mark O’Neill (Earnshaw Books). A veteran journalist who lives in Hong Kong and has worked in Asia for almost 50 years, O’Neill wrote the book at the suggestion of David Costello, a former Irish consul general in the city, who also helped to research it.
Although Irish people were well represented in the colonial service and in the legal profession, O’Neill believes the greatest contribution the Irish made to Hong Kong was in health and education. Irish Jesuits and De La Salle brothers founded schools in the city that offered an excellent education and were open to everyone.
“They weren’t just for wealthy Chinese or rich elite children. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say these schools transformed the lives of the children who went there. It gave them a modern education similar to what they’d get in Ireland, Britain or America, mostly in English, and enabled them to do further studies, become civil servants, architects, engineers, doctors, lawyers and emigrate if they wanted,” O’Neill told me.
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“The schools are still flourishing. It’s the same ethos as before and they’re very desirable schools. Parents want their children to go there. So the legacy is flourishing.”
The book tells the story of two Irish Columban sisters, Mary Aquinas from Ballinasloe, Co Galway and Gabriel O’Mahony from Enniskeane, Co Cork, who arrived in Hong Kong in 1949. They led a remarkable fight against tuberculosis at the Ruttonjee Sanatorium, effectively eradicating it.
“That was an extraordinary achievement. And from what I learned, treating TB is extremely complicated. It’s not like an injection and then pills for six months,” O’Neill said.
“It needs hands-on treatment. You have to follow the patients very carefully. And these nuns were able and willing to do that because they had no families. Their mission was to serve the Hong Kong people. So they were in the hospital, they stayed there during the night. If the patient had difficulties in the night, they would get up and deal with them.”
There are 2,500-3,000 Irish citizens in Hong Kong today, many of them working in financial and legal services, education, technology and for multinational companies. The most famous Irish person in the city is the swimmer Siobhán Haughey, who won silver medals in the 200m freestyle and 100m freestyle contests representing Hong Kong in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The daughter of Dublin-born accountant Darach Haughey and his wife Canjo, Siobhán is the great-niece of the late former taoiseach Charles J Haughey. She speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and English, something that sets her apart from most Hong Kong people and contributes to her enormous popularity in the city.
Part of the story O’Neill tells is of Irish people who chose to serve in the British colonial service after Ireland became independent in 1922. Many of those who worked in Hong Kong served around the world in British colonies before the wave of decolonisation in the 1960s.
“They joined for the same reason as everyone else did. Prospects at home were very poor. There were very high levels of emigration, and the jobs available at home were limited and didn’t pay very much. If you went to work in a British colony, you got much better pay, much better conditions, and your scope of work was enormous. You had opportunities and responsibilities that you could say you shouldn’t have had because it was a colony,” he said.
“I don’t think one should criticise them at all. They took a decision that was completely normal. Their classmates perhaps went to Chicago or Boston or Sydney, looking for opportunities. I think it comes down to what they did when they were here. Did they behave in a good way? Were they good to Chinese people? Did they contribute something to the society? So that’s how we could judge them, not with a big generalisation.”
