Seeking Refuge – A Special Event About Migration
Three eminent speakers will join a panel to discuss one of the great crises of our time.
Irish Times Africa Correspondent Sally Hayden will talk about her book, MY FOURTH TIME, WE DROWNED, an investigation into the deadly migration route across the Southern Mediterranean.
Author Melatu-Uche Okorie will read from her book THIS HOSTEL LIFE and speak about her experiences as a Nigerian refugee in Dublin.
ICC Patron Lord Alf Dubs will talk about his lifelong campaign for justice, care and compassion for refugees/migrants.
The panel will be chaired by journalist Dorothy Allen. Following the discussion Sally Hayden and Melatu-Uche Okorie will do a book signing.
Doors: 7.30pm; Starts: 8pm
Tickets: £10 OR £15 (with £5 charity donation)
ABOUT THE PANEL
Sally Hayden:
Sally Hayden is an award-winning journalist and photographer focused on migration, conflict and humanitarian crises. She is currently the Africa Correspondent for the Irish Times, and has also worked with VICE News, CNN International, The Financial Times, TIME, BBC, The Washington Post, The Guardian, New York Times, Channel 4 News, Foreign Policy, Al Jazeera and Newsweek. A Law Graduate with an MSc in international politics, she has twice sat on the committee deciding the winner of Transparency International’s Anti-Corruption Award. In 2019, she was included on the Forbes ’30 Under 30′ list of media in Europe. Her award-winning debut book “MY FOURTH TIME, WE DROWNED – Seeking Refuge On The World’s Deadliest Migration Routes” is Winner of ‘The Orwell Prize’ for Best Political Writing; Winner of ‘Irish Book Of The Year’; Shortlisted For ‘The Baillie Gifford Prize’.
Melatu Uche Okorie
Melatu Uche Okorie is a writer and scholar. Born in Nigeria, she moved to Ireland in 2006. It was during her eight and a half years living in the direct provision system that she began to write. Melatu has a strong interest in the rights of asylum seekers and migrant education in Ireland. She has an M. Phil. in Creative Writing from Trinity College, Dublin and has had works published in numerous anthologies. In 2009, she won the Metro Éireann Writing Award for her story ‘Gathering Thoughts’. She is currently studying for a PhD in Education at Trinity College, Dublin. This Hostel Life is her first book.
Lord Alfred Dubs
Lord Dubs was born in December 1932 in Prague and was one of the Czech children rescued from the Nazis in the Kindertransport. Today Lord Alf Dubs is one of the UK’s leading campaigners for human rights and justice and for the plight of Refugees,
Lord Alf Dubs studied at the London School of Economics before entering a long career in public service. He has been a local councillor, MP for Battersea; Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office; Chair of the Fabian Society, Chair of Liberty, a Trustee of Action Aid, Director of the Refugee Council and a Trustee of the Immigration Advisory Service. He was also Deputy Chair of the Independent T.V. Commission, a member of the Broadcasting Standards Council, becoming Deputy Chairman in 1995, and then Deputy Chair of the Broadcasting Standards Commission until 1997.
Lord Dubs was appointed a Labour working peer in 1994 and is now an active member of the House of Lords. He serves on the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. He is on the Advisory Board of the John Smith Memorial Trust, formed in 1996 to promote the ideals of democracy, social justice and good governance. Lord Dubs is also our valued Patron here at the Irish Cultural Centre, Hammersmith.
Interviewer Dorothy Allen
Dorothy is an award winning journalist, currently the London correspondent of Swiss magazine Tierwelt. She is a former BBC reporter, working in documentary programmes for television (Brass Tacks; Panorama) and radio (File on Four). As a print journalist, she won a Feature Writer of the Year award while reporting for the Burton Daily Mail. She has also written a weekly television review column for The Tablet magazine. Dorothy is a former Vice Chair of the Irish Literary Society. Dorothy is also a key member of the ICC Irish Literature Programming team.
ABOUT THE BOOKS
“MY FOURTH TIME, WE DROWNED Seeking Refuge On The World’s Deadliest Migration Routes”. By Sally Hayden
The Western world has turned its back on refugees, fuelling one of the most devastating human rights disasters in history.
My Fourth Time, We Drowned follows the shocking experiences of refugees seeking sanctuary, but it also surveys the bigger picture: the negligence of NGOs and corruption within the United Nations; the economics of the twenty-first-century slave trade and the EU’s bankrolling of Libyan militias; the trials of people smugglers; the frustrations of aid workers; the loopholes refugees seek out and the role of social media in crowdfunding ransoms. Who was accountable for the abuse? Where were the people finding solutions? Why wasn’t it being widely reported?
What the Press and People say about My Fourth Time, We Drowned …
‘Journalism of the most urgent kind’
Financial Times
‘The triumph of the book is to inject a renewed urgency and moral clarity into a story most people think they are familiar with’
The Times
‘[A] devastating, moving and damning account of one of the tragedies of our age … Hayden never flinches in documenting human nature at its worst – its best is shown here, too’
Irish Independent
‘The most important work of contemporary reporting I have ever read … I hope that Sally Hayden’s work can help to begin a radically new and overdue discussion about Europe’s approach to migration and borders’
Sally Rooney
‘What a devastating book about the catastrophic inhumanity of European migration policy. It’s a journalistic masterpiece. Shattering stories. It absolutely demands to be read … Essential’
Max Porter, author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers
‘Compassionate, brave, enraging, beautifully written and incredibly well researched. Hayden exposes the truth’
Oliver Bullough, author of Moneyland
‘One of the most important testaments of this awful time in life’s history. It is both heartbreaking and stoic’
Edna O’Brien, author of ‘The Little Red Chairs’, ‘Girl’ and’ The Country Girls’
‘A veritable masterclass in journalism … The most riveting, detailed and damning account ever written on the deadliest of migration routes’
Christina Lamb, Chief Foreign Correspondent of the Sunday Times
‘Heart-stopping … A vital book for anyone who wants to feel what it means to be human in the 21st century’
Fintan O’Toole, author of ‘We Don’t Know Ourselves’
My Fourth Time, We Drowned is Published by Harper Collins.
“THIS HOSTEL LIFE” – tells the stories of migrant women in a hidden Ireland. By Melatu Uche Okorie
This Hostel Life tells the stories of migrant women in a hidden Ireland.
From a day in the life of women queuing for basic supplies in an Irish direct provision hostel to a young black woman’s depiction of everyday racism in Ireland, her nuanced writing shines a light on the injustice of the direct provision system and on the insidious racism experienced by migrant women living in Ireland. A third story, set in a Nigeria of the past, tells of a woman’s life destroyed by an ancient superstition and her fierce determination to carry on, a quality Okorie believes is universally shared by women. The collection includes a fascinating essay by Liam Thornton (UCD School of Law) explaining the Irish legal position in relation to asylum seekers and direct provision. Melatu Uche Okorie was nominated for Newcomer of the Year at the 2018 An Post Book Awards.
What the Press and People say about ‘This Hostel Life’…
‘A marvellous book and a wonderful writer’ Sebastian Barry
‘These stories are vitally important. I loved them’ Marian Keyes
‘Fresh, devastating stories . . . Okorie writes with uncomfortable clarity about things we think we already know. She takes us to places we might not want to go within ourselves and to worlds we haven’t seen before in Irish writing’ Lia Mills
“Melatu Uche Okorie has important things to say – and she does it quite brilliantly. Her language is arresting and inventive, and very entertaining’ Roddy Doyle
‘A landmark book by an important new voice in Irish writing; these are the stories we need to read.’ Emilie Pine
‘This Hostel Life is published by Skien Press
£5 from every £15 ticket will be donated to Trocaire to help support displaced people.
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