New Neighbours: Nigerian pastor Larry Ovie: Sunday morning is a very special time for me in Galway and everyone is welcome to come along.
We have a congregation of over 100 which meets in the Menlo Park Hotel for worship. Lots of families are there and the music is great.
I'm a shepherd - I run a church but I also run a cleaning company, Faith Cleaners. Yes, I suppose I am offering to clean more than souls. I employ Slovakian, Polish and Romanian employees. We do work for property management companies.
We have been here in Ireland for four years now after leaving Delta State in Nigeria. Our first-born was three and my wife Lizzy was pregnant with our second child when we arrived and were sent to Borrisoleigh, Co Tipperary. We were there for a couple of months but Lizzy needed to be close to a hospital because of her medical condition, and so we were sent to Dublin and then to Galway.
We arrived at the Eglinton Hotel in Salthill and I suppose I made friends quickly because of my religion and my work with the church. I established a good relationship with the hotel manager, Patrick, who was very co- operative in helping to set up supports for asylum-seekers like us. We opened a crèche with voluntary teachers, and then I set up my Faith Christian fellowship as part of the Pentecostal church. Many people are very depressed when they arrive, and so we try to create some sort of community for them.
We began our services in the Eglinton and then under the Leisureland swimming pool for a few months. We moved several premises before basing ourselves at the Menlo Park, and we get anything between 80 and 120 people there now on a Sunday. I also attend the Eglinton every Tuesday as I know it is very important to keep up this contact with people.
As soon as I got my residency approved, I decided to quit social welfare supports as I felt I had to lead by example. I think the direct provision system which doesn't allow people to work if they are on State support is very degrading, demoralising and doesn't allow people any opportunity to integrate into society. We left the Eglinton, and now we are living in Corrandulla, Co Galway, in a very quiet and lovely area and our two children attend the local school.
I hear stories all the time about the pain that many asylum-seekers are experiencing - not being allowed to take food to your room if you are in a hostel and you have small children; families being put in separate rooms, and interrogation by officials. Four years ago a young man I know died of a heart attack. There is a lot of stress, but many people are too afraid to speak out and so the Government doesn't get to hear about it.
It [hostile attitude] is something I don't understand, because I met many Irish religious people and teachers in Nigeria, and we learned about what happened to Irish people and how they were treated 200 years go. I have an Irish name, my younger brother is called Festus, and now I am preaching the gospel to people who brought the gospel to me!
We have met many very good people too, people such as Rev Patrick Towers of St Nicholas's Collegiate Church (Church of Ireland), who I have worked with. We had a very successful joint service with him, involving lots of different churches in Galway last year before Christmas, called "Hear our Cry". I've done the Passion of Christ with him every Good Friday and I've played the part of Jesus for the past two years. We are working on another project now with Rev Towers for November 20th - a service of song in St Nicholas's Church, where there will be no preaching, no talk, just music, music. It will run for three hours from 7pm, and we hope to attract a lot of people who might not otherwise find a place for themselves in church.
I like to play the keyboard myself, and to sing, and we hope to make this service an annual event in Galway. We have to attract the youth back in. You see the elderly and little children in church, but you don't see so many young people and they are the ones who matter. They represent the future.
In conversation with Lorna Siggins
