The Lesser-Told Story of Nigerians in Ireland

It’s 27 July 2024. As the Irish sun sets on Orlagh House and its surrounding pastures in the southside suburb of Rathfarnham, County Dublin, a towering figure clad in black emerges onto centre stage with intention. His presence prompts the instantly recognizable syncopated rhythms and trills of an instrumental that has dominated social media feeds for months. The crowd swells in uproar as excited attendees desperately reach for phones and cameras to capture a moment few will forget: one of the year’s most viral songs globally, ‘Kehlani’, being performed right here in Dublin. As Belfast native, Jordan Adetunji’s lilting vocals float dreamlike over the seductive backing track, he directs the congregation whose arms sway obediently in a trance-like unison. Amid the frenzy, I find myself slowly retreating from the packed crowd to higher ground, partly to gain a better vantage point of the spectacle, partly in disbelief. While the significance of an event is most often realized in retrospect, in that moment, the gravity of the scene unfolding below me was undeniably palpable.