The sons of abuse campaigner Christine Buckley have revealed they were regularly called the N word growing up.
Mixed race siblings Darragh and Conor Buckley said they experienced racism in 1980s Dublin - but their mother made them proud to be different.
The brothers tell their story on RTE’s The Talk which is released to coincide with the anniversary of the killing of George Floyd in the US.
Darragh told Dublin Live that despite the horrible abuse, his mother gave them confidence to be proud of who they were.
He said: “My mum always reminded us that everyone was different and the world would be very boring if that wasn’t the case.
“She would have gone through ten times more racism growing up. It made her a stronger person.
“When you use the term racism, most have an association with the Ku Klux Klan where people are going out of their way to be racist.
“I don’t think Ireland has such a big issue on that but I think we have a bad issue with unconscious bias and prejudice against minorities.
“We have a lot of work to do on that upward battle.”
Activist Christine was raised in the notorious Goldenbridge industrial school and devoted her adult years to helping other survivors of institutions.
Darragh said he and his brother were called horrible names in school.
He said: “I remember in primary school it becoming fairly regular that people would call you stupid names like the N word or the G word or poo face or that kind of stuff.
"I remember mum picking us up from school, remember our mates sniggering, stuff like that.
“If da picked you up you didn’t have to be paranoid, if mam picked you up you’re paranoid that the kids start thinking of another name for you the next day.”
Conor added: “You definitely wanted dad picking you up because it’s just simpler, he looked like everyone else and blended in.
“I remember saying to dad only recently we were playing a football match, under 11 or under 12, this fella in midfield he kept saying the N word and he spat at me.
“I told dad about this - his memory for things that happened in childhood is not great. I told him and said you probably don’t remember, but he said ‘yeah, I do remember’. “I couldn’t believe it. It was probably the only time I had tears on the pitch. He said ‘I really didn’t know what to do’.”
You can watch The Talk on the RTE Player.
