Ireland’s first black mayor urged more migrants to become involved in civic life yesterday.

On his first day in office, Rotimi Adebari, a Nigerian who was elected Mayor of Portlaoise, Co Laois, said: “I say this to my fellow immigrants, ‘The sky’s the limit’.

“Ireland is not just the country of a thousand welcomes but a country of equal opportunity. Ireland has changed and will never be the same again but I say this is a good thing.”

Mr Adebari, 43, arrived in 2000 with his wife and two children after fleeing his home country because of persecution for his Christian beliefs. After failing to find work he volunteered at a local tennis club, set up an unemployment support group and became involved in local politics.

The new mayor, who has four children, wants to make integration the main issue of his year in office, with a special focus on education. “If integration is carried out from an early age, they [children] grow up not to see differences but to see opportunities,” he said.

Trevor Sargent, the Green Party leader and junior Agriculture Minister, said that Mr Adebari’s story of “fleeing religious persecution in Nigeria and creating a new, productive life for himself and his family in Ireland, is extremely inspiring”.

Mr Sargent said he hoped Mr Adebari “achieves his mission of dispelling prejudices and fostering a greater understanding of, and engagement with, immigrant communities in Ireland”.

Irish society, once poor and overwhelmingly white and Roman Catholic, is changing swiftly as a result of open borders and its Celtic tiger economy, which has transformed the country’s fortunes.

Foreign nationals now make up almost 14 per cent of Ireland’s workforce, up from 7 per cent just four years ago.

Mr Adebari first contested the town council elections in 2004 as an independent. He was elected, to the surprise of many – including his own supporters – after polling 321 first-preference votes.

He established a consultancy called Optimum Point which trains companies and educational institutions in cross-cultural awareness. The new mayor holds a masters’ degree in intercultural studies from Dublin City University and now works with Laois County Council’s immigrant integration support group.

He was elected mayor under a pact by which the position rotates among the Fine Gael, Sinn Fein and independent council members. Black people in the Republic were extremely rare even a decade ago. Some schools in the Dublin area now have 20 per cent of their pupils from overseas, while in two city wards foreigners outnumber natives, latest census results say.

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