Anseo

A contemporary and gorgeous memoir of adoption from Vietnam to Kerry, the love of her small family and the power of the Irish language to overcome loss, racism and online trolls. In 2013, Úna-Minh Kavanagh was spat upon and racially abused in Dublin’s city centre, an incident that was widely shared in the media and online. In the days that followed, Úna-Minh had only one niggling regret: that she had not responded in her first language, Irish. Úna-Minh was adopted as a newborn from Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1991 by a single woman from Kerry. Six weeks later she arrived in her new home of Ireland. Raised in a loving home by her teacher mother and retired Garda grandfather, Úna-Minh was instilled with a multi-faceted sense of Irish identity. In her first book, Úna-Minh writes honestly about how the racist attack on Parnell Street was a catalyst for her to live through Irish in a twenty-first century way: online, globalised, in activism and feminism. And she talks frankly and humorously about tackling trolls, flirting abroad, gaming and her passion for creating accessible content in Irish. Sprinkled throughout with funny and relatable Frása an Lae (phrase of the day), this is the heart-warming and important story of a diverse and contemporary Irish life.