Generation Green: Greg Eckels, 26
News 10 March 2021
Irish Heritage
We are Family
I may not look it but yes, I’m Irish! I have that classic melting pot, New World mixed heritage that blends people from vastly different parts of the planet. I was born in America, my dad is straight from Jamaica and my mum is - like so many New Yorkers - of Irish descent. As a kid I grew up in New York’s Spanish Harlem, which had a really cool, vibrant street culture, especially before it was gentrified.
My ancestor Harold Eckles had an Irish mother and when he returned there he fell in love with Eileen O’Kelly from Belfast. Perhaps she was a fiesty redhead with a big personality like my mother, who looks so Irish. Because we look so different, people often didn’t see the connection when I was growing up: they thought she was my nanny or would try to speak Spanish to me. Others actually think we’re very alike - my girlfriend Freya says that I am her carbon copy.