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Shadows of the Past: “Unravelling the Forgotten History of Irish Oppression and coining the term WIIPOC (White Irish Person of Colour) to bring Healing and Wellness.”
“I walked through the shadows. And I came back with fire.”
For centuries, the Irish people have carried wounds that were never named — famine, colonisation, forced migration, cultural erasure, religious abuse, and the silence that followed. These traumas didn’t disappear. They were passed down, embedded in our families, our nervous systems, and even our DNA.
In Shadows of the Past, trauma-informed coach and storyteller Richard “The Mouse” Williams unravels this hidden history, blending epigenetics, intergenerational trauma research, and Irish storytelling to reveal the truth behind our inherited struggles — and the hope that we can heal them.
From the Viking invasions to the Norman conquest, from famine to diaspora, from the Magdalene Laundries to the Troubles, Mouse traces the shadows that shaped the Irish psyche. Along the way, he coins a new identity WIIPOC (White Irish Indigenous Person of Colour) — a recognition that Ireland, too, carries the scars of colonisation and oppression, and deserves its place in global healing conversations.
But this is not a book of despair. It is a book of resilience, humour, and hope. It is a love letter to the Irish spirit — and to anyone who has been told they are “too white to be oppressed” while carrying pain that feels centuries old.
For centuries, the Irish people have carried wounds that were never named — famine, colonisation, forced migration, cultural erasure, religious abuse, and the silence that followed. These traumas didn’t disappear. They were passed down, embedded in our families, our nervous systems, and even our DNA.
In Shadows of the Past, trauma-informed coach and storyteller Richard “The Mouse” Williams unravels this hidden history, blending epigenetics, intergenerational trauma research, and Irish storytelling to reveal the truth behind our inherited struggles — and the hope that we can heal them.
From the Viking invasions to the Norman conquest, from famine to diaspora, from the Magdalene Laundries to the Troubles, Mouse traces the shadows that shaped the Irish psyche. Along the way, he coins a new identity WIIPOC (White Irish Indigenous Person of Colour) — a recognition that Ireland, too, carries the scars of colonisation and oppression, and deserves its place in global healing conversations.
But this is not a book of despair. It is a book of resilience, humour, and hope. It is a love letter to the Irish spirit — and to anyone who has been told they are “too white to be oppressed” while carrying pain that feels centuries old.
190 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 26, 2025
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About the author
Richard Williams
338 books21 followersLibrarian note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. This is Richard^Williams, a catch-all for authors who can't be matched to one of the other specific ones.
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