• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Irish America

Irish America

        • Who We Are
          • About Us
          • Irish America Team
        • The Lists
          • Business 100
          • Hall of Fame
          • Health and Life Sciences 50
          • Wall Street 50
        • Highlights
          • History
          • In This Issue
          • Music
          • Politics
          • Sports
          • Travel
        • Columns
          • First Word
          • Hibernia
          • Quote Unquote
          • Slainte
          • Those we Lost
          • What are you like?
          • Wild Irish Women
          • Window on The Past
  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • About This Magazine
    • Irish America Team
  • In This Issue
  • Hall of Fame
  • The Lists
    • Business 100
    • Hall of Fame
    • Health and Life Sciences 50
    • Wall Street 50
  • Archives
    • Magazine
    • Highlights
  • Travel
  • Events

One Woman’s Story

By Kelly Fincham, Contributor
April / May 2001

April 1, 2001 by

“There is no greater sorrow on earth than the loss of one’s native land.”

– Euripides, 431 B.C.

Cathleen* 30, is a Christian woman from Nigeria. One day last year, before she came to Ireland, she and her sister Nora were shopping in the local market. A row broke out at a nearby stall which soon developed into a scuffle. Knives were pulled and suddenly people were fleeing from the market.

There is a history of tension between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, and this day the Muslims gained the upper hand.

Cathleen and her sister were separated in the stampede and as Cathleen made her way home she passed the corpses of some of her neighbors on the road.

When she reached her family home, she found another sister, Julie, six months pregnant, lying across the entrance to the house. There was no pulse. In the hall of the house she found the bodies of her parents. Later she discovered that her sister Nora was also dead.

Cathleen’s brother joined a raiding party to attack a house they believed was sheltering some of the killers, and was shot dead in the attempt.

Stunned, traumatized and incoherent with grief, Cathleen was taken in by a woman who runs a safe house in Nigeria. From there she was whisked away by a plane to an unknown destination which turned out to be Dublin.

Cathleen has since discovered that one sister is still alive – as are her sister Julie’s two children, who were in school when the massacre took place.

Somehow, in this merciless world which tries to keep refugees buried alive at the bottom of the human food chain, Cathleen is determined that she will het her remaining family out. She would not tell me how.

Like all recent arrivals to Ireland, she had learned to distrust us.

*Names have been changed to protect identities.♦

Primary Sidebar

Highlights

News
Articles and stories from Irish America.....
MORE

Hibernia
News from Ireland and happenings in Irish America.....
MORE

Those We Lost
Remembering some of the great Irish Americans who have passed.....
MORE

Slainte!
Discover Irish ancestry, predilections, and recipes.....
MORE

Photo Album
Irish America readers share the stories of their ancestors....
MORE

More Articles

  • <b>Fiona Shaw: A Modern Classic</b>Fiona Shaw: A Modern Classic
    She says she's jetlagged, that her head feels as if an arrow is piercing both temples, but Fiona Sha...
  • <b>Angela's Ashes Loses Its Voice</b>Angela's Ashes Loses Its Voice
    Anyone who has read Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes -- and by now that probably takes in about half t...
  • <b>The Boy from Southie</b>The Boy from Southie
    Michael Patrick MacDonald was in the third grade when the anti-busing riots broke out in South Bost...
  • <b>The Connemara Prints</b>The Connemara Prints
    Fashion and celebrity photographer Kit DeFever (who has shot many Irish America covers) turns his ey...

Footer

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Subscribe

  • Subscribe
  • Give a Gift
  • Newsletter

Additional

  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Terms of Use & Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 · IrishAmerica Child Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in