Author Siobhan McDermott: ‘The fantasy of life in Ireland gave way to a less rosy realisation, one shared universally by mixed race children’

The writer recounts how life in Ireland as a mixed race child shaped her new children’s book

Mixed race author Siobhan McDermott as a child with her Chinese mother

Siobhan McDermott

When I was seven, my family moved from ­Discovery Bay, Hong Kong to Enniskerry, Co Wicklow. Until then, I’d only experienced Ireland in brief holiday flashes: racing past a stuffed fox in Kerry, squirrelling extra Mikado biscuits into pockets when my parents weren’t looking.

For me, an animal-obsessed child, Ireland was the land of ladybirds. One of my main memories of that time is charging around my cousin’s garden in ­Malahide and collecting them. Mortifyingly, these would be brought back to Hong Kong in ziplock bags lovingly stuffed with handfuls of grass and studded with makeshift air holes.