Living away from your loved ones, your culture and your
way of life has never been easy. It is our natural instinct
that we seek company of people who share a common language,
culture and a similar lifestyle. Living in a foreign land in
that regard, is always difficult. It could be very
depressing and frustrating not being able to share your
feelings, speaking the language you know and live a life you
used to. To escape from this pain and solitude, we need some
moments with our own people now and again, and share
happiness as well as sorrows together. The Nepal Ireland
Society was born to serve this purpose for Nepalese living
in Ireland. Its objective is to provide a common platform
for Nepalese living in this country, create a homely
environment away from home and extend a helping hand to any
Nepalese who are in need.
The first Nepalese settler coming to this country dates back
to 1984. Ireland has never been a commonly known destination
for Nepalese in the past. However, this is changing in
recent years and more and more Nepalese are coming to this
country for education, businesses and employment. Although,
the number of Nepalese living in this country is still very
small compared to other countries, this number is growing
slowly but steadily in recent times. Earlier Nepalese
settlers like Mr. Krishna Dongol, Mr. Ganga Ram Shrestha,
Mr. Ram Narayan Poudel, Mr. Prakash Mali, Mr. Shiva Gautam
and Mr. Jivan Timilsina who are living here from many
years, put their mind and efforts to establish the Nepal
Ireland Society in 2000 in the presence of the then Nepalese
ambassador to the UK. Despite great desires and high
expectations, the society could not take off straight away
after its establishment and needed additional injections of
new blood and determination to set it off in its correct
course. And the result……………. the first ever grand Nepalese
get-together which was successfully organized on April 14th
2004 in IT Blanchardstown. At last, Nepalese in Ireland have
found a common pad to come and enjoy together. Responses
from those who attended (and those who couldn't) were
overwhelming and the society was encouraged further to
organize similar social events more frequently. Since then,
the Society has organized a Dashain get together in October,
2004 and a new-year get together in April, 2005. Both of
these events were very successful with a participation of
more than 150 Nepalese from all over Ireland. Besides these
annual social events, the society is also keen to arrange
other activities such as sports, music, arts, cultural
events etc. Positive responses and enthusiastic
participations in events like snooker competition in 2004
and junior painting competition in March, 2005 were further
encouragements to the society.
Activities of the society is not only limited to organizing
social events. In bid to reach a wider audience, the society
has put up this web site with useful information to the
Nepalese residing inside as well as outside Ireland. The
society is also successfully operating "SMS Communication"
that is providing useful information to Nepalese regularly.
The society has also put up a good deed by raising €1030 for
Tsunami victims in South-East Asia which was handed over to
Irish Red Cross Society.
The immediate engagement of the society is to organize
upcoming social events, bring out the first ever Nepalese
Irish newsletter, maintain this website and making it more
interactive, and create a mechanism to help keep the
information flowing among our community. Nepal Ireland
society is still in its embryonic stage but it is turning
out to be the heart of Nepalese community in Ireland and we
have to make sure it keeps beating. We can do that by
showing our interest, giving our support and taking an
active participation in the society.
