The priest who paints nudes
A priest is celibate in Catholicism, so Father Claerhout is somewhat ironic. He enjoys appreciating the naked female form, so he hires prostitutes, but instead of using that encounter for sex, he does something unexpected: He just captures their beauty with his paints and pays them for their time. Who knows what he's like behind closed doors, but to Niki, he represents the opposite of a john. Instead of using her and degrading her, he studies her and appreciates her, but is romantically unavailable.
The ironic hike
In order to get to the appreciative father in the monastery, Niki has to hike through a dumpy place where poor mountain men make fun of her and say hateful, violent things to her. She is raped by a man once, and she is mistreated by many of the men who pay her for sex. But, ironically, when she gets to the top, she is no longer harassed by anyone, and she gets to be naked and unashamed. This irony is a little bit transcendental in flavor.
The irony of Popi
If black people and white people are as different as South African apartheid suggests, then why can a black mother and a white father have a beautiful girl like Popi? It seems that racism is simply a hateful idea invented by mankind, because nature seems to reward the relationship with a healthy baby girl. And yet, Niki goes to jail just for giving Popi birth.
The irony of Viliki
When Viliki grows up, he notices some dramatic irony afoot. The reader (hopefully) knows already that Niki's life is filled with injustice, but Viliki notices that actually, Niki hasn't quite figured out just how unjust her situation is. His character comes to full bloom because of this. He makes his life about political activism so he can help influence the future, so people will know their inherent worth as human beings.
The irony of judgmental people
When Niki attains peace with her fate, it comes at a great cost, but ultimately, this one irony stands alone as her reward. Although she is constantly paranoid by aggressive, judgmental men who want to hurt her and humiliate her, she realizes that ultimately, they harass her because she is someone whose attention they would desperately appreciate, but they are unable to be successful with people. She realizes that they are evil because they are weak, and that their judgment falls on their own head. They're simply projecting insecurity.
