As Barbados celebrates its birth as a republic this week; is it time that Ireland remembers our Irish Diaspora on Barbados ?

There are four hundred Poor Whites or Redlegs living on Barbados, the remains of a community of approximately fifty thousand Irish people banished to the Carribbean by Cromwell in the middle of the seventeenth century. In Barbados they made a life for themselves together with other English and Scottish indentured slaves mainly working on the plantations owned by English absentee landlords. Over the centuries the tendency to marry others from within the community and to avoid  marrying across ethnic boundaries have left the remaining community suffering the after effects of centuries of neglect and they now exhibit the effects of the lack of a diverse genetic pool. Sheena Jolley who visited the community to capture their predicament through her photographs reported that “Illnesses and premature deaths due to haemophilia and diabetes have left men blind and without limbs”

The Barbadian or Bajan Irish are concentrated in the east-coast parish of St John, on the opposite side of the island to the capital Bridgetown. Their surnames include Downie, Dixon, Fenty, McCarthy, O’Brien, Norris, and Banfield. Their names, accents and folklore leave us in no doubt of their Irish ancestry.

Whilst the Irish Government openly celebrates the global Irish diaspora; the abject failure to address the ongoing suffering of Irish community on Barbados speaks volumes for our failure to grasp the significance of this tiny community and their significance in our Irish history.

We continually celebrate the success of the Irish Diaspora around the globe, many of whom have descendants who are in powerful positions in politics or industry. We’re not shy about attending functions celebrating Ireland when invited to the glamorous and salubrious surroundings of Washington, London or Sydney, so why we cannot resolve the ongoing issues that are facing this pocket of Irish Diaspora simply beggars belief. Isn’t it time for us Irish to grasp the bull by the horns and proactively do something for this community ?

These innocent Irish people who were rounded up from across the country predominantly by Cromwell and bound in chains and shipped to Barbados to work on sugar plantations have been forgotten and in the main wiped from our Irish consciousness. Surely our failure to take proactive action to help this community is nothing short of a national disgrace and an sad indictment of our failure to include them as part of our Irish Diaspora. 

Michael Martin in a previous role as minister for Foreign Affairs commented that government representatives have been to Barbados to meet with the community. During their meetings, the Redlegs received encouragement to keep in contact with the government. “Representatives of the community are welcome to submit an application for funding under the Emigrant Support Programme” said Minister Martin. Clearly Micheal Martin is disconnected from the reality on the ground in the communities of Barbados if he feels that the community can pursue what can be an arduous application process with a small community, limited resources and low levels of education and literacy. They need more that an open door, they need us to proactively reach out and help those who may now lack the ability to help themselves.

Now that Barbados has finally cast of the shackles of the British Imperialist yoke; isn’t it about time we reach out to them in their time of need ?