Imagine being the only Goan in a county in the late 90s and now finding over a 100 Goans in the same region. That’s how Milla Hancock, originally from Arambol feels when she is busy planning for the first ever Irish Goan Day, a huge milestone to unite Goans at a single event. The Goan community in Ireland, which has been active since 1996, will organise the first Irish-Goa Family Fun Day at Burnaby Park in Greystones, near Dublin, today, July 22.
With the hope of attracting Irish and Goan families, the Irish-Goa day celebrations will include several stalls featuring a dog show, henna tattoos, Goan cuisine, hair braiding, Milla’s Famous Indian Curry, Knockroe farm – fresh strawberry, jewellery, Vic’s BBQ, North Indian food and South Indian food.
To kick-start the weekend, the community organised its first Konkani Litany at St Anthony’s Catholic Church in Kilcoole, Ireland on Thursday. “The Litany was announced online for the community and we had a very good number of devotees attending the Konkani Litany. It was aired live on the church website so many people could see it across the world too. This was the first Litany in Konkani and at least we started something for future generations in Ireland as there are a lot of youngsters now,” says Milla, a founding member of the Irish Goemkar (Goa) Committee. She is also a Eucharistic minister in the same church for 25 years.
The Irish Goemkar is a registered community in Ireland. Besides Milla, the other committee members include Nora Hayden, Milla Hancock, Victor Evans, Lisa Doyle, Netty Mascarenhas, Lea Cardozo, Nikita and Robin D’Souza, Samira D’Souza, Cliff Fernandes, Edviges and Cecil Rodrigues, Tatu and Maya Humraskar, Saby and Anne, Peter D’Costa, Pratisha and Salil Walavalkar.
The community’s mission is to provide support both financially and emotionally to those who are struggling or vulnerable. Previously, it has raised money for tsunami victims under the Red Cross Guidance, donated food and clothing to the homeless in the community and surrounding areas, raised funds for sick people, who were having difficulty paying their hospital bills and purchasing medications, and also visited local nursing homes to provide company and support to the elderly.
Interestingly, Milla was the first Goan to set foot in Wicklow county when she married Angus, an Irishman and left Goa in 1996 and settled in Ireland, where she has been living for 28 years. “When I first came here, there was not a single Goan, Indian and even Asian. I was longing to see someone from Goa or India but there were Goans in Dublin. There were no Indian ingredients as well especially chillies, ginger or garlic and I used to eat tomatoes with the salt. It was a cultural shock for me as I was craving Goan food. Now, times have changed so much that I have to tell family and friends visiting me not to get anything from Goa. I recently saw Goan cluster beans (tidki midki) in an Indian market,” explains Milla, who is now the mother of 24-year-old Oscar and 21-year-old Molly and has Goan curries as a staple in the home.
It’s a joy to see the community coming together at her home in Wicklow as they prepare food items including Pork Sorpotel for the event at Greystone County Wicklow.
Over the years, Milla brought in her own family members to move to Ireland and now with many Goans taking advantage of the Portuguese Passport are moving to Ireland. “Now the families have increased in Ireland. A lot of people from Arambol have moved here. We are around few 100 Goans in this county now. Goans who don’t get the settled status also prefer to come to Ireland. We decided this was the right time to have the first Irish-Goa Family Fun Day. This was my plan for many years but we didn’t have enough Goans here. So now because people are coming in, it was the time to organise it. My plan is to go big after a few years and I’m hoping to get build a community nursing home in the future,” adds Milla.
The entertainment factor will be raised higher with Robbie Doyle, an Irish singer, ‘Love Island’ famed Kim Hayden, Pat Ukulele Band and Michael’s Ballroom Dancing. DJ Xavier will fly in from UK as he will add the Goan songs to the mix at the event compered by MC Victor Evans. “We don’t have a keyboard player to play the Konkani songs otherwise we have fabulous singers who would love to sing Konkani songs. But we have two deejays including DJ Xavier who will be playing Goan songs,” concludes Milla.
