Analysis: With Nigeria achieving independence in 1960, both the Irish state and the Church took the opportunity to mark the occasion with a significant trading partner
On 1 October 1960, more than 500 people, including Nigerian students, Irish clergy and friends, gathered at the Church of Our Lady Seat of Wisdom on St Stephen’s Green to mark Nigeria’s independence. The choir from the Holy Ghost Missionary College in Kimmage sang.
The Solemn Votive Mass was arranged by the Nigeria Independence Celebration Committee, but Archbishop John Charles McQuaid declined to preside, and let Archbishop Antonio Riberi, the Papal Nuncio, take the honour instead. Riberi, alongside a young Nigerian priest, Fr Charles Ikeme, then a student at UCD, presided over the Mass. In his homily, a Holy Ghost priest, J.J. Keane, noted that Nigeria was larger than Ireland, France and Italy combined and had more than 35 million people.
The Mass was only the start of the week. A "Nigeria Night" dance filled the Olympic Ballroom on Pleasant Street on Friday. A reception at Newman House followed the Mass with the Minister for Industry and Commerce, Jack Lynch, as guest speaker.
The following Saturday, Nigerian and Irish seminarians played football at Kimmage; a fortnight later, a Shelbourne Hotel Independence Ball attended by Dublin’s Lord Mayor, M.E. Dockrell, closed the celebrations. Sponsors for the week ranged from the Holy Ghost Fathers to Guinness, Clerys, Brown Thomas, C.J. Fallon Ltd, Cahill & Co. Ltd, and Madame Nora. Nigerian flags flew across the city centre as O’Connell and Grafton Street shop windows marked the occasion.
Beyond Dublin, the Society of African Missions, the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles, and the Holy Rosary Sisters held Independence Day Masses in Cork and Killeshandra, while Belfast’s Catholic Overseas Club organised one at Aquinas Hall for African students and Irish families connected to Nigeria.
At the government level, His Eminence Cardinal J.F. D'Alton sent a message of goodwill to Lagos, and so did President Eamon de Valera, who delivered it in person because the Taoiseach, Sean Lemass, happened to be in Nigeria that same week.
Bishop Anthony Nwedo of Umuahia marked independence by thanking Irish missionaries for eighty years of work in his diocese, describing the Igbo Catholics who made up most of his flock as "the Irish of West Africa," a people who carried their faith wherever they travelled. He tied the whole event to a pilgrimage some Nigerian Catholics had made to Fatima, Lourdes, and Rome to consecrate their new nation to Our Lady and closed by invoking a prayer for Nigeria composed specifically by Pope John XXIII.
The Irish state took the moment just as seriously as the Church did. Lemass spent eight days in Nigeria that September, with his wife, Kathleen and C.C. Cremin, Secretary of the Department of External Affairs. Nigeria's Federal Minister of Interior, Usman Sarki, met Lemass at Lagos airport, alongside a delegation representing the thousands of Irish people then living in Nigeria.
On 26 September, Lemass opened Ireland's brand-new Consulate under Aedan O'Beirne in Lagos, which Irish officials at the time called the first and only Irish diplomatic post anywhere in Africa, and announced plans to upgrade it into a full embassy. A few days later, Lemass stood and watched the Governor-General, Sir James Robertson, formally hand over the instruments of independence to Nigeria's first Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.
Back home, Lemass told reporters he had been struck by how many of Nigeria's professionals had trained in Ireland. Half the doctors at Lagos General Hospital were graduates of Irish medical schools, and Nigeria's very first female doctor, Elizabeth Abimbola Awoliyi, had earned her degree in Dublin.
Like Ireland, Nigeria was formerly under British rule. Irish people first served there in the colonial administration and later as missionaries, teachers and nurses. During the Nigerian Civil War, Irish missionaries led major relief efforts. After Biafra’s surrender in 1970, about 105 Catholic missionaries were convicted of illegal entry and deported by Yakubu Gowon’s government.
The relationship did not stop there; it just changed shape. In September 1974, the Irish Nigerian Friendship Association (INFA) was formed and was meeting regularly in Dublin. When Nigeria's first ambassador to Ireland, Chief M.O. Adefope, addressed INFA’s second annual dinner in 1976, he told the room that Nigeria had the largest Irish population of any country in Africa. He called for fairer access to European training for Nigerian students and the removal of Ireland’s redundant second-language university entrance exam for students educated in English.
From RTÉ Archives, 'Nigeria 1960' a documentary to mark the Nigeria's declaration of independence
He also highlighted a stark trade imbalance: Irish exports to Nigeria rose from £4 million in 1974 to £12 million in 1975 and nearly £9 million in the first eight months of 1976, while annual imports from Nigeria barely exceeded £2 million. On a smaller scale, the Electricity Supply Board was training Nigerian engineers, and Aer Lingus had loaned Nigerian Airways two aircraft.
Nigeria remains one of Ireland's most significant trading partners in Africa, these days built on pharmaceuticals, technology, agriculture, innovation, and education. Nigerians are prominent in Irish healthcare, academia and the priesthood, with a growing presence in public life; Rotimi Adebari, Yemi Adenuga, Helen Ogbu, and Ebun Joseph are all firsts in Irish politics and policy formulation. Israel Olatunde, Ireland's fastest man over 100 metres, is of Nigerian heritage, and so is Rashidat Adeleke, the country's leading woman sprinter.
So are some of the Boys in Green - Paul McGrath (Paul Nwobilo), nicknamed "The Black Pearl of Inchicore" and "God", Michael Obafemi, Chiedozie Ogbene, Gavin Bazunu, and Adam Uche Idah – all recognisable faces in Irish football. Gaelic football has its own examples too. Collins Ugochukwu is the first Nigerian-born player to play for Laois, and Donegal's Abigail Temple Asokuh, whose father Eloka played before her, has become a key figure for the county's ladies’ footballers.
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The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
