CHI ONWURAH, Newcastle's first black MP, has spoken of her Irish heritage and wanting to inspire the next generation of women during an event at the Tyneside Irish Centre.
Onwurah was born in Wallsend to a Nigerian medical student and the daughter of Irish immigrants from the town of Athy, in Co. Kildare.
When she was a baby, her family returned to Nigeria, but their stay was cut short by the Biafran civil war, and the devastating famine that followed.
Onwurah returned with her mother and sister to Newcastle as refugees. She went on to complete her education in the North before studying for her degree in electrical engineering in London.
“My Irish heritage was really important to me, growing up my mum often talked about her Irish upbringing,” said Onuwurah, whose constituency is Newcastle upon Tyne Central.
“She talked about the discrimination her father faced when he first came to the UK from Ireland, how many jobs he couldn’t go for, because he was Irish.”
Her grandfather like many other Irish immigrants, eventually found work in the shipyards – did this influence her decision to seek out a career in engineering, and later turn to politics?
“It was partly growing up in the North East, in an environment that valued making and building things, and partly my mum’s heritage. My grandfather was a shipbuilder on the Tyne, my mum talked about him with a huge amount of respect, he was very political.”
Onwurah went on to have a successful career in engineering, before being elected as a Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne in the 2010 General Election.
As trained engineer it is perhaps natural that she sees the future of energy production and conservation as being key for the North East.
She is also passionate about encouraging young women to consider a future in engineering, an often male-dominated industry.
“I would say to women they mustn’t let gender stereotyping keep them from what is a very rewarding, career,” she said.
“One of the things that annoys me is, we talk about going women going into caring professions instead of careers like engineering, but, giving people clean water or enabling grandparents to communicate with their kids, building transport networks. That’s really caring. That makes a difference, it makes the world a better place.”
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