Gabriella Martins, 7: ‘I think God is a boy, and he has brown hair and peach skin’

[ irishtimes.com/generations ]

Gabriella Martins lives in Drogheda, Co Louth

I was born in Poland. My daddy, Timi, is from Nigeria and my mommy, Jolanta, is from Poland. They got married in Nigeria. My sister, Rebecca, was born in Ireland. We came to Ireland a few years ago.

My favourite animals are dolphins. I would like to have a dolphin because they are cute and they make funny noises. I would put my dolphin in my back garden in a big tank. I’d call it Giggly, because dolphins giggle a lot. I have two dogs already, Rocky and Jazzy; they are both American bull terriers.

My favourite sweet thing to eat is candyfloss and my favourite healthy one is spuds and gravy.

I like art and Irish. What I like about art is that we get to paint. Once we did silhouettes. Silhouettes are black. It’s like if you go into the shadow from the sun, it goes black, and your face goes black and you can only see the outside lines. I like music too. My favourite music is One Direction.

What I don’t like about school is handwriting. My hand gets sore.

I believe in God. I think he is a boy, and he has brown hair and peach skin. He created the world and he asked Noah to build an ark for the animals because people were being mean to the animals, and they were killing them. God lives in heaven with his son, Jesus, and Mary and Joseph and the angel Gabriel.

I think heaven is where the clouds are and it is full of angels. I think the angels have controls for the clouds: they have buttons they press, and they press them when it’s going to be cloudy or rainy.

The scariest thing that ever happened to me was seeing a movie about a girl called Coraline. It was kind of like Alice in Wonderland. She had button eyes. That’s what was scary. I’m scared of tarantulas too. I saw one in a book once; a man was holding it on his hand.

The best thing that ever happened was when I went to the circus in Drogheda and the clowns were doing funny things. They sprayed people, but they didn’t get me.

I want to be a doctor or a teacher. What I like about doctors is that you get to help someone when they’re sick. What I like about teachers is that you get to learn about children. If I had one wish it would be that when I go to college we never get any homework on Fridays.

The difference between adults and children is that grown-ups don’t have time to play, because they are so busy working, but children always have time to play. It’s better to be a child, because we have more time to play.