Two birlliant young Irish Nigerian artists

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column

Michael Commane

I’m a fan of The Tommy Tiernan Show on RTE One on Saturday evenings. I make it a must to watch it every week and every week I pick up at least one gem.

On Saturday, March 13 it was a quiet enough show until two young Irish Nigerian women walked on to the stage, sat down and within seconds I found myself glued to the television.

Longford’s Felicia Olusanya aka FeliSpeaks and Tullamore’s Tolü Makay sat down to be interviewed by Tommy.

The two women are friends since their teens. Tolü Makay sings and FeliSpeaks is a poet. While I gather they are well known in the country, to my shame I had never heard of them before. 

They attribute TikTok as one of the social platforms that is making black Irish identity really popular.

Tolü Makay, accompanied by the RTE Concert Orchestra sang on New Year’s Eve the famous Saw Doctors’ N17. I’ve been listening to her singing it many times since the Tommy Tiernan Show. It really is haunting. She is spectacularly brilliant and I’m finding myself trying to sing those words as she did: ‘And as we turned left at Claregalway/I could feel a lump in my throat ……’ It’s simply magic to hear this young Nigerian woman sing that song. 

And as Tolü Makay says while they are Nigerian born, Ireland has formed a lot of their personality.

And they are so funny too. Makay says they are the first of their own and have no problem at all switching from the Nigerian to the Irish accent.

FeliSpeaks read her poem ‘For Our Mothers’ on the show.

Her poem is on the English Leaving Certificate curriculum 2021 - 2023. It’s about Nigerian culture and how women share their secrets behind closed doors about womanhood and what is expected of women. It’s powerful and listening to it, all I can say is that I can imagine there is a universal tone to it. 

She was so self-deprecating explaining how it is on the Leaving Cert when she told Tommy that: ‘Yeats is right under her name’. 

They are so funny. I found myself roaring laughing watching and listening to them. And there was something else that resonated with me. 

I read about them saying how important a person’s name is in the Nigerian culture. I always think a person’s name is intimate and important and when people respect our names you get an idea they are respectful people. Some weeks ago I was on a zoom meeting with Dermot Farrell, the new Archbishop of Dublin. Whatever way he called me by my name I felt he was taking me seriously.

How fortunate Ireland is that these two women landed with their families on our shores.

I strongly recommend you make it your business to listen to them singing and reciting their poetry. You can find it all on YouTube.

And guess what, I think there were times during the show when Tommy was so mesmerised by the two women that he was stuck for words and that certainly was a first for me to see.

Thank you, Tolü Makay and FeliSpeaks. You are brilliant. And you made me laugh too.