A COUNCILLOR IN Meath has made history after being elected as the first black woman to a local authority in Ireland.
Yemi Adenuga, a first-time candidate for Fine Gael, was elected in the Navan electoral area in last Friday’s local elections.
Originally from Nigeria, but living in Ireland since 2004, Adenuga said she never set out to make history and only wanted to contribute to her community.
Speaking on local station LMFM today, she said: “I’m a people person, I’ve always been and I believe politics should be about people. And I ran at the time because of all that belief, not because I was black, not because I wanted people to see me as somebody who wanted to make history.
“When you set out to do something you don’t know you’re making history. It was only yesterday that people starting relaying to me that ‘look do you realise you’re the first black woman to be elected to any council in the Republic of Ireland’.”
She said her skin colour never disadvantaged her when she was speaking to locals on the canvass trail, and said her election victory represented a more diverse Ireland coming down the tracks.
“I will be honest, I am very excited,” she said.
“I believe that something interesting and amazing is going to be happening – diversity is no longer just a word, it’s action.
“And I believe that so many people in this nation who have diverse backgrounds have so much they can bring, so much they can offer and so much they can contribute to the economy so this is a leeway into that.”
Asked if she thought she received the ‘black vote’ given her Nigerian heritage, or the ‘Fine Gael vote’ or the ‘woman vote’, she said it was a mixture of all of the above.
“I think it was across the board, it was totally across, because even while we were canvassing a number of parents of some of the young people I worked with in the community were very excited.
“Young people as well – most of them are now over 18 – were very excited and looking forward to voting on the day.
“It was across the board, it was quite broad and I was very happy about that. I think it really told me the fact that people in the community – young, old, white, black – all valued what people had brought to that community – including myself.”
Adenuga and her family are also well-known for their appearances on TV show Gogglebox.
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