Anseo

by Una-Minh Kavanagh

In 2013, Úna-Minh Kavanagh, a young journalist and content creator, was racially abused and spat upon in Dublin's city centre. Having dealt with racism throughout her young life, this proud Kerrywoman had finally had enough. In the days that followed, she took to Twitter to call out the 'land of a thousand welcomes' for its naivety and cowardice in dealing with racism. The incident was widely shared in the media and her story went viral. But Úna-Minh's story actually begins in Hanoi, Vietnam, in 1991, when she was adopted at just three days old by a single woman from Kerry. Raised in a loving, Irish-speaking home by her mother and grandfather, Úna-Minh was instilled with an enduring sense of her multi-faceted Irish identity. In her first book, she writes honestly and humorously about tackling racism, language elitism and online trolls and the joy of turning her love of the internet, video games and accessible Irish-language content into a healthy work/life balance. Sprinkled throughout with Úna-Minh's own #FrásaAnLae, Anseo is the heartwarming story of a diverse and contemporary Irish life.

Genres: Nonfiction, Irish Literature, Memoir, Biography, Ireland, Biography Memoir, Autobiography

145 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 21, 2019

About the author

Úna-Minh Kavanagh is the author of her debut memoir 'Anseo' from New Island Books (2019) and DIY Gaeilge: 150 Irish Language Resources (2021).

She is a journalist and works in creative media and has been featured in Lonely Planet, The Irish Times, Her.ie, The Irish Independent, The Kerryman, Kerry's Eye, The New York Times, The Sunday Times, and The Times and appeared on radio across Ireland.

In 2017 she won 'Social Activist' of the Year at the U Magazine 30 Under 30 Awards. She was nominated in the Top 4 of the Travel Media Awards.

Born in Hanoi, Vietnam and adopted as a baby to Ireland, she lives in Dublin where she works in the games industry.

Reviews

[Romie · Rating 4 out of 5]

this memoir is a love letter to languages and Ireland, and I loved it so very much! (4.25)

[Aoife · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely non fiction book from Irish journalist and gaeilgeoir Una-Minh Kavanagh as she details her childhood growing up in rural Ireland as a woman of colour, and how her beloved grandad instilled a love of the Irish language in her from a young age and how Irish has helped her become the person she is today.

I've been a follower of Una's for quote a while, and I'm glad to have finally read this book and learned more about her mother's journey to Vietnam in 1991 to bring Una home, and her beautiful relationship with her grandad (which I think hit me deeper as I'm a couple of days away from my own grandad's two-year anniversary). As someone who deeply regrets my failure of learning Irish in school, I really appreciated Una's fun attitude towards encouraging the ability in others and her passion in keeping Irish alive in as many ways as possible which includes gaming in Irish. Now, thanks to Una I've switched my email inbox to Irish to help me tune my mind a bit more to the language.

Una also details some of the horrible racism she has experienced in Ireland - both offline and online - and her strength of spirit and character in the face of such low behaviour is commendable. I liked how she encouraged people to speak up for themselves or for others with her story and how she turned her story into a brilliant online campaign to highlight that Irishness means more than freckles and white skin but comes in a kaleidoscope of beautiful skin tones, backgrounds and experiences.

I think there were times the writing and the story stayed on the simpler side of things, and I wasn't always here for detailing of the amount of engagement different tweets got online (I also think all of this would mean nothing to an older read and could repel them from the book). However, I did enjoy Una's sense of humour that stayed intact for the entire book, and how can I not enjoy a book that is more or less a love letter to both the Irish language and a wonderful Irish grandad.

[Anny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've basically inhaled this book!

I 'know' Úna-Minh from Twitter and that's really it. I never really got the chance to consume her content, written or on video. But I liked her #FrásaAnLae and her overall attitude to language learning (Which, as she describes in her book, is super similar to mine). It seems like I have a lot of catching up to do! And when I saw that she had a book released, I had to get it right away! Took me a while to get to read it, but here I am. Better late than never.

Úna-Minh uncovers a lot of different facets of her life. Everything is written in a humorous and light-hearted way, despite the darkness of some of the aspects. I really enjoyed the read and it's going to have a place of honour on my bookshelf.

Also, I want to be her when I grow up?

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I expected a transracial adoption memoir but Anseo is more of a love letter to the author’s granddad and the Irish language.

Úna-Minh Kavanagh was born in Vietnam in 1991 and adopted by Noreen, a teacher from County Kerry who’d spent years thinking about having a child. Being unmarried didn’t faze her, even when neighbors whispered about how she’d “gone on a career break [to Canada] for two years and returned with an Asian baby.” Noreen wasn’t completely on her own—her father Paddy helped care for his beloved granddaughter until his death when Úna-Minh was 15. It was he who instilled in her an enduring love for the Irish language.

Reading this so soon after Korean adoptee Jane Jeong Trenka’s memoir The Language of Blood, I can’t help comparing both women’s experiences. Trenka envies adoptees with “enlightened” parents—those like Noreen, perhaps, for whom adoption was a first choice, no shadow of sadness or grief. She acknowledged her daughter’s heritage from the start, including it in her name (Minh is Vietnamese for “bright”) and openly discussing what little they know about her birth mother. Úna-Minh treats the story as a “potential truth” and is at peace with it. Noreen and Paddy’s fierce love for her, combined with Noreen’s willingness to listen / step up when her daughter is bullied at school, helps Úna-Minh grow up safe, secure, and proud to be a brown Irish-speaking Kerrywoman.

But racism in Ireland, like elsewhere, persists. Relatively sheltered from it in small-town Tralee thanks to her protective extended family, Úna-Minh gets a blast of micro-aggressions when she moves to Dublin. She tries to ignore the looks and comments—until the day she is verbally assaulted then SPAT ON and nobody comes to her aid. Refusing to stay silent any longer, the journalism grad uses social media to spur discussion of racism, modern Irish identity and language elitism, going viral and attracting trolls along the way.

I don’t think I, a Chinese Malaysian with no connection to or knowledge of Ireland, am the intended audience for Anseo. (I wish I could remember where I heard about it!) Written in a breezy, conversational style that I sometimes wish went deeper, it's a continuation of her anti-racist/Irish language revitalization efforts. The audience is definitely local (lots of untranslated Irish words in the text, as well as Irish place names and pop culture references) but I’m very glad I read it.

[Aoife Monaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely story!

My mum was away for the weekend visiting her parents in Castleisland, Co. Kerry which is in the south of Ireland. Coincidentally, this is just down the road from where @unaminh is from.

As a matter of fact, her grandmother and my great grandmother are sisters. Her Mum and my Grandad are actually cousins.

Úna-Minh was brought up by her Mum Noreen and beloved grandfather in Tralee, Co. Kerry. She was adopted at just three days old from Hanoi in Vietnam and speaks Irish as her first language.

Due to the fact that she is both a proud Kerrywoman and cainteoir Éireannach, the book is laced with phrases and expressions in Irish which are grear educative tools. #CúplaFocal

Having dealt with racism throughout her young life, one day she finally had enough and took to Twitter to fall out the “land of a thousand welcomes” for its naivety and cowardice in dealing with racism.

I’m so glad that this book fell into my hands & I would definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking for an honest and humorous insight into how she tackled racism, language elitism and online trolls. How she turned her love of technology and accessible Irish- language content into a healthy work/ life balance.

Now excuse me while I catch up on all of the #FrásaAnLae that she has put on Twitter and try to learn as much Irish as I can on Duolingo

[Kayleigh (Hedwigsbooks) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simultaneously like having a chat with a friend and listening to a TED talk, I flew through this from starting it earlier today. I don't think I've read a book that celebrates the joy of being Irish like this before.

[Seán Macaoire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have no hesitation in recommending this book. This young lady has written from the heart about her experiences throughout her short life from the viewpoint of an adopted Vietnamese, warts and all. She has a lovely way of telling a story which gripped me from beginning to end and I loved the way she had phrases of Irish language neatly seagued into her story. She is proud of all her heritage and does not hold back in her descriptions of what that brought on her. She has had physical and mental attacks which can't have been easy to bear. Her story had me mentally cheering her on as she dealt with full-on racial attacks and, to perhaps a lesser extent, on her choice of a language that may not be the choice of a majority in our small country.

I give classes to people who do not have english as a first language - I have started using it as an "authentic" resource in class and I also recommend it to my Irish language students. A breath of fresh air!

[Síofra · Rating 4 out of 5]

léigh mé an leabhar sin ar an eitleán ó Éire chuig an Ísil Tír, agus ar an traen ó Schiphol go Utrecht Centraal. ní raibh mé in ann é a chur síos.

leabhair dóchasach é, a chur inspiróid ionam níos mó iarracht a dhéanamh le mo chuid Ghaeilge. mise anseo thar lear, agus ag déanamh an-iarracht gach lá le mo chuid Spáinnis, caithidh mé an rud chéanna dhéanamh di.

is éireannach mé!! rud ba chóir go mbeimid thar a bheith bródúil as. is saghas act of resistance é bheith i d'éireannach, in ann do theanga dúchais a labhairt.

is aoibhinn liom na slí a chuireann úna-minh os ár gcomhair, (slí an-éasca), chun do theanga a úsáid i do shaol gavh lá. brb putting my voicemail message in irish 💕💕💕💕

[Amanda]

I don't give star ratings to books like memoirs because I feel a little weird about rating the stories of someone's life, but I definitely think this book is worth the read! One of the overarching elements of this book is the author's relationship with her grandfather and you could really feel the love and warmth in the author's words. I'll admit I even shed a few tears. I would've been interested in reading about Kavanagh's college and post-college life in more depth, and she also has a lot of important things to say about racism in Ireland and Irish identity, so I'll be keeping an eye out for what she writes next.

[currychips101 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay finished a second book today?? Who am I Ahlam?? Read this on the plane to Bangkok, it was so such a lovely read I cried, fab book examining racism in Ireland and her experiences of growing up in Ireland after being adopted from Vietnam. Her love for the Irish language because of her grandad could almost banish the trauma of learning sraith pictures and have an interest in speaking Irish xx

[Rose Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part family history, part call to anti-racist action, part love letter to the Irish language, this was a delight, as is Ms Kavanagh herself. I'll be needing to look up how to pronounce those phrases now!!

[Suad D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una-Minh's experience is definitely unique as an adopted Vietnamese by an Irish woman. She was an easy target for haters in Ireland but she manages to fight racism through her continuous efforts to share her passion for the Irish language and heritage. Fair play.

I was expecting a deeper memoir, but it was written in an easy-going essays style that I couldn't connect much with and found myself skimming through some parts.

I didn't like when she kept mentioning how many followers she had or how many viewers looked at her posts. Felt like another 'influencer' book.

Maybe it would have looked better in a blog more than a book.

[JosephO'Callaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was extremely excited to get my hands on a copy of this book and was not disappointed with the read. It's so refreshing to read Kerry colloquialisms as there were so many relatable things in this book. It is an important piece in addressing racism in Ireland and fuelling positive reactions to it. The irish that was sprinkled within the pages has encouraged me to take the language back up and I couldn't recommend it enough for that. Everyone needs to buy this book.

[Seamus Fanning · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is account of the writers journeys, struggles, triumphs and relationships.

It gives a detailed account of the Irish language and how its influence and culture has shaped her life and encounters.

[SozBell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! The first book of my holiday reading list and I finished it on the plane! Úna-Minh kept me turning the pages in what was a very interesting, insightful, enjoyable and eye opening read. It has made me really pause and reflect on Irish society today. Her love of the Irish language is also quite infectious and has made me want to start using my Gaelainn arís :)

[Mags Buggy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Una-Minh was adopted from Vietnam as a baby and grew up in Kerry with Irish as her first language.
This is the story of what that was like for her. She talks about her great love for the Irish language and the racism that she has experienced because in the minds of some she doesn't 'look' Irish. Its an easy read and hard to put down once you start that first chapter. I've passed this book onto my daughter who has also loved the experience of reading it.

[Shona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting reflections on Irish identity and racism. Inspiring stories on fostering Irish in contemporary ways.

[Denise C · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Úna's story is fascinating and she gives you a great insight into growing up in rural Ireland and her love for her family, Kerry and her native language, An Gaeilge. Úna also shares with us the battles she has had both in real life and online with rascism and her unique way in dealing with trolls. A well worth read.
She has inspired me to learn the cupla focal once more!

[Aine · Rating 3 out of 5]

“There is plenty of racism and xenophobia in Ireland, but it is covered strangely in the Irish media. Instead of giving a person of colour a platform to share their experience or talk about how to prevent or deal with racism, radio, television and print media invite the most controversial figures to write columns or talk on panels. I don’t plan on giving them space in my book. But I will go so far as to say that I don’t think we have yet developed the tools to proactively prevent racism from happening again. We are stuck in some kind of a PC reaction vortex. Then, when racism is reported - in the news, on social media, or in ‘casual banter’ in a WhatsApp group - we respond with naive shock, total denial or those last lines of defence: ‘Well, I’m not offended by it’ or ‘Stop being such a snowflake’.”

A really compelling read, “Anseo” tells the story of Úna-Minh Kavanagh to date but it is also the story of the Irish language over the last century and its possibilities into the future, of race and identity in Ireland today, and is a beautiful recollection of her mother and grandfather. While it could have been interesting to have a more in-depth examination on some of the topics (e.g. how some of this racist bile is developing and how it is being organised, how successful online anti-racism organising can be, whether we can accept POC’s identification as Irish without them necessarily engaging in specifically “Irish” activities, or whether freelance work is a “model” for the majority or just in particular sectors, etc), brevity is also what gives the book its charm. The final chapter, on why to stop whinging and just learn Irish, is golden.

Would definitely recommend to a friend.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fascinating memoir about Ireland, identity, the Irish language and racism.

[Ann McMahon]

Lovely account of a traditional Irish childhood in a modern Ireland Hopefully only the first instalment of an interesting life story still ongoing in a wonderfully positive spirit Beir Bua 👍👍

[Roisin Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great read. You could easily take it all in with just one sitting if you wanted to. I'd recommend it to absolutely anyone, though those with an interest in Ireland, Irish people and the question of identity will all love it. And of course Vietnam... and adoption...and recognizing and tackling racism. And gaming. And forging your own path. There's a lot here to entice a reader in!

Like all good books, I put this one down having learned something. Things to be precise.
Equally important, it's a nice refreshingly positive book despite some of the very important social issues being addressed.

Recommended reading for those starting secondary school I think.

[Daryl Feehely · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anseo is such a beautiful book. Is leabhar go h-álainn é Anseo. The positivity, inspiration and determination radiate from it and ooze into you while reading it.

The author does a great job of walking the reader quickly through the common points of growing up and living in Ireland while at the same time telling her own unique story.

The author also discusses some very important points about casual racism in Ireland and how to recognise and tackle it, along with some inspiring stories of determination and empathy. The book is also a rallying call for use of the Irish language in a modern context. Ar fheabhas ar fad!

[Eoghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very easy read with an innovative layout. It looks at Irish in a fresh enthusiastic manner in the technology age that only entices you even more. It could have easily been an self- indulgent memoir but instead is a short book with snappy chapters that tells alot in under 200 pages. An impressive feat that many others would struggle to achieve for their first book.

[Tadhgie Éibhín · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. Úna-Minh offers her thoughts on racism in Ireland, her wonderful childhood in Tralee, the Irish language, gaming, and much more besides. A rollercoaster of emotions and some lovely, sharp writing.

[Eavan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A breezy, upbeat memoir by a young woman who was adopted from Vietnam by an Irish-speaking family in Tralee. It was interesting look at one young Irish Gaeilgeoir's experience with the language, although it was not as deep or reflective as I'd hoped.

[Brid Drake · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read, which made me consider how important the Irish language is to our culture. I applaud Una’s efforts to make it relevant to our modern age.

[David Lumsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Úna-Minh Kavanagh grows up in the beautiful Contae Ciarraí with a remarkable and doting mother and grandfather. Her only difference is that she looks different from most in the area at the time
- having been born in vietnam and adopted mere days after her birth. From the moment she arrives home, she is infused with a grá for Irish with her native-speaker daideo. There is a beautiful photo of them with the author as a young girl that flashed up on my ebook every time I opened the app - the sort of lovely photo that reminds me of my time with my grandad. What follows is a timeline of her life: the ups and downs, the love for language, the love for family, the love for Kerry, the love for journalism, the love for gaming...and more.

The lowest part of the book recounts Úna-Minh's assault by some amadán in Dublin which spurred her to raise awareness of Irishness in those who do not necessarily appear Irish. We learn how she met the person who assaulted her and what happened. Even though it is a low in the book, the positive course of action the author took since this is commendable. You will enjoy looking at the projects and media she has created.

I must say that I have questioned whether I am someone who asks 'where are you from?'. Perhaps I am and I will think about that. I hope I am not and I imagine most reading this book might ask the same. I do envy the gaming aspect to Úna-Minh's work and I wish I could incorporate gaming into my job!

I came to this book through trying to learn and engage with the Irish language since moving to Ireland, often feeling stupid trying to use it where natives do not. With a bit of inspiration from the book on how I might do this further I feel I can be speaking Irish with my kids and neighbours in a short time.

A pleasant book to read and helped inspire me.

[Hannah Gilligan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely easy read touching on issues that as a young white Irish person I am aware of but was never on the receiving end of. I picked up this book because Úna-minh reminded me of a girl in my own Gaelscoil primary school who was also adopted from Vietnam and like Úna-Minh, we never questioned her "Irishness". I loved reading about Úna-Minh's beautiful childhood, her family and her friends and how she grew to be the talented strong woman she is today. I was disgusted to read how despicable people can be and particularly saddened by the abuse she has received as an adult especially from young people. The question of Irishness is very topical particularly with the extremists we are seeing more and more in Irish society today trying to promote a dangerous and hurtful narrative. Úna-minh is an inspiration and her smart clapbacks as Gaeilge to racists made me smirk. However, I hope it's something that as we develop as a society, will not be something she will continue to have to do to prove her Irishness.

My favourite thing about this book is her 'Frásaí an lae' which are shared on nearly every page. This was a really nice touch and her tips on how to reconnect with the Irish language are great and are much appreciated by me as I try to come back to Irish.

[By Book and Bone (Sally) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anseo is a great little book. Úna-Minh's ode to her grandfather and to the Irish language is charming and easy to read. It oozes personality and the feeling of Kerry.

The later chapters about Úna's goal of expressing her Irishness and bringing Irish people of colour together online is just as relevant today. The book doesn't focus much on racism as a lot of the advertising would have you believe but there is still a poignant, if short, look into Ireland's racism.

I adored the snippets of Irish throughout and really appreciate the newer phrases/translations at the back. I can really see myself incorporating some of the newer slang into my speech.
My one critisim would be that Anseo reads like two separate books stapled together. One of Úna's early life with her Granddad and a second book about racism on Twitter. It doesn't flow quite so well from one to another. It's a small thing.

I'm annoyed it took me so long to pick up a copy but sure, tá sé níos fearr déanach ná riamh.