Protest song for deported family

A community has been driven to song as part of their campaign to bring back to Ireland a Nigerian family deported from County Monaghan. The Okolie family's plight has won the hearts of locals in the border town of Castleblaney, as the BBC's Diarmaid Fleming reports.

The children were shocked when their friends were deported

It takes something big to fill a classroom outside of schooltime.

But the deportation on 14 March of Nkechi Okolie and her three children Ike, Chidinima and Chukka to Nigeria has brought school pupils in Castleblaney volunteering en-masse for rehearsals of the song (Something Inside) So Strong.

They are recording it onto CD to be released to radio stations across Ireland, as part of their campaign to have the Okolies brought brought back from Nigeria.

More than 4,000 people - most of the town's population - have signed a petition to have the family brought back, appealing to Irish Justice Minister Michael McDowell to reverse his decision to refuse their asylum application.

Nkechi, a devout Christian, says that her claim was based on religious persecution in her native province, and because her daughter is in danger of female circumcision, which she herself was forced to undergo.

I'm so overwhelmed, I didn't realise how much love we had from a community Nkechi Okolie Speaking from Nigeria Irish apology for Nigerian student

When asked to present herself at the local Garda station on 14 March, neither she nor any of her neighbours believed the family would be deported after four years living in Monaghan.

She was shocked to be told she would be taken immediately to Dublin to board a chartered flight to Lagos.

After her children were brought to the police station, there was only time for tearful goodbyes with friends who hurried to see them taken away.

The strength of feeling among the town's adults is mirrored in younger members of the community who have been explaining why they have chosen to protest in song.

One of the children's schoolfriends, Tara Wilson, says she was at the police station to see them going.

"It was really sad and everyone was crying, everyone was really upset," she says.

"It is really hard now because it's always on your mind thinking about what they are going through. Everyone is just really upset and wants them to come back."

People we loved and knew so well have been taken away from us, and so swiftly that we weren't able to prepare for it Reverend Nancy Cubitt

Another fellow pupil, Fiachra Clarke, says it came as a great shock.

"We were given no notice, they were just suddenly snatched from us. They were integrated in the community and were great friends and great neighbours to everyone," he says.

While the Okolie children went to the local Catholic school, they were members of the Presbyterian congregation, whose minister the Reverend Nancy Cubitt has been at the forefront of the campaign.

"Well it's almost like a death - people we loved and knew so well have been taken away from us, and so swiftly that we weren't able to prepare for it," she says.

"They were a wonderful family, both mother and children, and the whole community loved them."

Teachers at Our Lady's school, like Cara Murray, say the idea for the CD came from the pupils.

"They had seen the adults putting ideas together and they felt they wanted to do something for their friends to bring their friends home. We felt this song was the most suitable and poignant," she says.

Overcome with emotion

When she hears a recording of the song for the first time by phone in Nigeria, Nkechi Okolie is in floods of tears, overcome with emotion at the campaign thousands of miles away to bring her and her family back to Ireland.

"I'm so overwhelmed, I didn't realise how much love we had from a community - they welcomed us, showed us love and took us in when no-one else, even in our own country, wanted to," she says.

"They gave us shelter, they gave us food. I am counting down every single moment that I might be reunited with my people in Castleblaney and County Monaghan - I just want to come back and give everyone a hug.

"They showed my family true love and I want to be able to give the same back."

After protests by school pupils in Dublin, Justice Minister Michael McDowell performed a u-turn in the case of Nigerian school student Olukunle Elukanlo who was deported on the same plane as the Okolies but is now back in Dublin today.

But a spokeswoman for the Irish Department of Justice said that the student's case was an exceptional one in exceptional circumstances and did not set a precedent for any others.