Meet John Hyland, an Irish NGO worker whose career took him to Brussels where he fell in love with a French woman. A perfect European love story which led, as these things do, to a perfect European family. But what happens when this most European child, born in one of the world’s most proudly multilingual cities, has a name with a fada?

In today’s episode, John tells Darach about his journey to Belgium and gives a whistle-stop tour of a country of contrasts, where divided communities are held together by a labyrinth of bureaucracy. He tells the story of how important it was that his daughter have an Irish name and the lengths he had to go to just to get that recognised.

The book John mentions in this episode is “King Leopold’s Ghost” by Adam Hochschild: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/adam-hochschild/king-leopold-s-ghost/9781509882205

Find John on twitter at @JohnHyphen

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Get Kirsten Shiel art prints here: https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/kirstenshiel/ 

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Contact the show:

twitter - @motherfocloir and @theirishfor

email - [email protected]