Ireland welcomed me but many more fellow Syrians need help

Razam Ibraheem

Razan Ibraheem

When I first came to Ireland, it was to follow those Irishmen who had long captured my imagination. The Yeats and Joyce I read back in Syria drew me to my dream of postgraduate work, musing 'Under Ben Bulben' or on the trail of Stephen, Leopold and Molly.

I still remember the day I landed in Dublin Airport on a student visa. I had a bagful of memories and longings which I lugged along to a new city I didn't know a single soul in. It was lonely and hard, not to mention cold.