'There was so much community': FeliSpeaks on the 'joy' of her childhood in Longford

Longford poet, performer and playwright FeliSpeaks was one of two guests who featured on Saturday night’s edition of The Tommy Tiernan Show on RTÉ One. The show also included an in-depth interview with Mullingar singer-songwriter Niall Horan.

FeliSpeaks, in what was her second appearance on the popular show, revealed to Tommy that she is writing a book. 

“I'm really excited about it because I’ve gone from spoken word poems, poetry in general, being my first kind of release, or my first pen, into writing plays. The past couple of years, I've been writing a lot of plays and now writing a book. I didn't think I was the type of person that would ever write a book. It just sounds like so much commitment, but it just dropped. I got the idea,” she said.

Born Felicia Olusanya in Ogun State in southwestern Nigeria, she and her mother moved to Longford, in 2003, when she was eight years old. 

In 2018, she co-wrote her first play, Boy Child, with Dagogo Hart—a story about a boy without a father navigating what it means to be a man through the eyes of the women in his life. Boy Child was featured at the Dublin Fringe Festival, selling out and earning Felicia a nomination as Best Performer.

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FeliSpeaks was represented in the 2021–2023 Leaving Certificate English curriculum with her poem "For Our Mothers.” 

She also performed at Concern Worldwide's 50th anniversary celebration in Dublin Castle alongside guests and speakers such as former U. S. President Bill Clinton, President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins, and United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed. 

FeliSpeaks spoke about growing up in Longford and her time in school, saying: “I think I grew up really quickly anyway. My primary school and secondary school, for example, was very multicultural. I didn’t start really experiencing the shock of being in a majority-white country until leaving Longford.

“I moved to Longford when I was like seven or eight, so it's all I've really known from my childhood, but the grit is familiar. I have two younger brothers. I'm the only girl child in my family. So I also grew up, in general, rough around the edges, but I also had a lot of joy as a child. There was so much community, I was in constant community.” 

She outlined how her favourite teacher drove her to her first poetry competition in Carrick-on-Shannon and drove her back home, because her mother was working in Dunnes. “The ordinariness was very communal,” she told Tommy. 

Also read: Longford's FeliSpeaks and Tullamore's Tolü Makay a massive hit with Tommy Tiernan Show viewers

She referred to the challenges of moving back into the family home in Longford at the age of 30. “They’re doting on me, which is really sweet. I feel like I’ve been an adult for so long, even though I’m only 30. I feel now like I get to be their child again, which is nice.”

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