Celebrating cultural diversity through food and flags at ETNS

Thomas Lyons

The main hall of the Mullingar Educate Together National School was bedecked with flags and bunting when the Westmeath Examiner visited a couple of weeks ago. The air was thick with the aroma of foods from across the world and on the tables were enticing, colourful displays.

Teacher Blánaid Fenton stood at the door greeting guests: “I work with the parents association, and they have been busy over the last couple of months in preparation for this evening’s event,” she said.

The event, a multicultural food evening, has become a fixture of the school calendar and it looks to celebrate the diversity of the school population, an acknowledgement of the new threads weaved into Irish society.

“It’s always such a popular school event. It’s fabulous,” Blánaid said. “We really enjoy the opportunity to celebrate diversity in our school. We have a fantastic parents association and wonderful staff who just get behind all of these great initiatives.

“Our slogan for the evening is ‘we celebrate culture through food’ – that’s exactly what we’re doing. We’re coming together, sharing favourite meals, sharing the stories and the memories that it holds for us. And I suppose, sharing conversation.”

Though the tables set out were overseen by parents it was a student driven event: “Every child in the school created their favourite meal. They have also drawn the flags of their countries of origin, they’re all displayed around the hall.

“Every child’s culture is represented this evening. And a big part of this is the memories that food holds for them,” the teacher said.

Parent Anam Mahmood outlined how the idea to bring food and friendship together came about: “We have been doing this for the last three years. It’s a way of bringing all the families together. Lots of families will be bringing food and decorating their tables.”

Emeline Callan, another PA member, added: “It’s just a celebration of all the cultures within the school. It’s an opportunity for people to show their national dress, and other visual representations of their culture and share them with others.”

For Saima Khurram, this is a new experience: “This is my first time. It is interesting, we have lots of Ukrainian people bringing their food this evening, lots of Irish people, people from India, Pakistan, Brazil, Croatia and Canada.”

Another parent, Laura Prado, said: “As you can see from the flags people from all over the world are represented. They kids have drawn their favourite foods from their own culture and an explanation of why the food is important to them. There are feelings in the food and memories.”

Martina O’Toole said the multicultural food evening is about unity: “Part of our celebration is developing recipes, celebrating recipes from different countries, pulling them together so no matter what culture you are from there is an opportunity to share your recipes.”

There are lots of ways that the children can be involved in celebrating their culture.

“It’s also an opportunity for us as parents to be involved in the school and celebrate what the school stands for.

“People coming together, mixing well and having a positive experience.”