FOR the first time a photography exhibition celebrating mixed race Irish has gone on display in the London Irish Centre.
#IAmIrish is a project founded by Lorraine Maher Faissal is running during Black History Month and features 25 photographs of mixed race Irish people.
Ms Maher Faissal says she hopes this exhibition becomes a way to celebrate diversity, and opening the dialogue on being mixed race and Irish.
"I hope this project is part of the solution in opening up dialogue in understanding and to dispel the idea that if you are from a non-white community, you are automatically an immigrant," she said.
" The project is a creative conversation mapping the roots, the lives and experiences of Irish people who happen to be mixed race," Ms Maher Faissal added.
"October is Black History Month so what better time to celebrate as an Irish woman of colour than here at the London Irish Centre?" creator Lorraine Maher Faissal told The Irish Post.
Lorraine Maher Faissal, above, created the #IAmIrish Project and her photo features as part of the exhibition. (Picture: Tracey Anderson)Coined as the 'reluctant heroine' of the mixed race Irish, Lorraine Maher Faissal embarked on this project because she could never find anyone that represented her as mixed race and Irish in other exhibitions.
"There’s no one there that represents me, so I decided that I wanted to change that, I wanted to step out and own my Irishness," she said.
An image from the #IAmIrish exhibition of a mixed race Irish boy with a mop of red hair. (Picture: Tracey Anderson)"I don’t want to keep defending why I’m Irish.
"The reality is I grew up in Carrick-on-Suir, only knowing my Irish identity, my Irish history, my Irish heritage, that’s who I am: I’m Irish.
"I happen to be of colour but I’m an Irish woman," she added.
Scroll down to see a gallery of images from the #IAmIrish exhibition...
Speaking at the launch of the #IAmIrish exhibition, founder of the Association of Mixed Race Irish Rosemary Adaser echoes Ms Maher Faissal's sentiments.
"All our lives, the constant question was 'what are you?'" Ms Adaser says.
"This exhibition is an answer to that question: I am Irish, and that's all you need to know," she said.
Representing the Irish Embassy at the launch, Ruaidhri Dowling spoke of the importance of the event.
"One of the things that has come up this year [on the centenary of the Easter Rising 1916] is that we are reexamining what it means to be Irish," he said.
"We're looking at all the different strands of what our history is made of," Mr Dowling told the #IAmIrish launch.
The #IAmIrish Project photo exhibition is on display in the London Irish Centre until October 31 as part of Black History Month.
"Initially it was about putting people of colour on the walls in here because it's the Irish centre and we belong in here," Ms Maher Faissal said.
"But watch out," she added. "#IAmIrish is going global."
Lorraine Maher Faissal has plans to take the exhibition on tour, to contribute to travel costs you can do so here.
