Who are ‘the Irish’? History shows we’ve been a mixed bunch for centuries | Maurice J Casey

The far right demands a pure Irishness'. But our island story has long been interwoven with other ethnicities and diasporas

When lecturing on Irish immigration history, I usually start by asking: in which decade was the first footage of people of colour in Ireland filmed? Some students guess the 1960s. Others reach back to the 30s when the singer, actor and activist Paul Robeson performed in Dublin. The answer? The first filmed footage depicting an African diaspora gathering in Ireland is older than the independent Irish state.

The film, a silent black-and-white British Pathe reel, shows members of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra, an early jazz band, at Dublin port in October 1921. The men and women were survivors of a shipwreck. After their safe arrival on another vessel, the band performed for Dublin audiences. In the same month that Dubliners enjoyed the orchestra's music, Irish republican leaders negotiated national independence with the British government. The footage provides a visual metaphor: Ireland's history of diversity predates the state itself.

Maurice J Casey is an Irish historian based in Queen's University Belfast. He is the author of Hotel Lux: An Intimate History of Communism's Forgotten Radicals

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