{"id":19585,"date":"2025-08-24T04:12:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T04:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/19585\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T04:12:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T04:12:13","slug":"international-fest-celebrates-community-life-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/19585\/","title":{"rendered":"International Fest celebrates community life \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019ve never had any trouble, we really love Ireland and we want to be here,\u201d an Indian nurse manager said at the annual International Fest in Cabinteely, Dublin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rich heritage, tradition, diversity and culture was on display in a grand celebration of diversity on Saturday with up to 30 different cultural groupings taking part from countries including India, Georgia, Spain, Brazil and Ukraine. <\/p>\n

More than 500 people took part in the free festival and hundreds more attended.<\/p>\n

The festival was rebranded this year from India Fest to \u201cencourage other cultures living here\u201d to become involved, said Patrick Finnerty, who was overseeing events in Kilgobbett Park.<\/p>\n

Linu Manu, a nursing home manager in Athboy, Co Meath has been living in Ireland for the last 15 years and has three children. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been to different countries such as Switzerland but Ireland has been so welcoming and very kind,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of our Irish friends we made here have since visited the south of India where we are from. We have been enjoying Ireland so far and my family has really integrated.\u201d <\/p>\n

She says she and her family have never experienced trouble. \u201cOur families are in India and we could go back but our life is here and we are here because of the people, place and culture.\u201d <\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s festival comes in the aftermath of a number of attacks against members of the Indian community<\/a> in Ireland that have prompted widespread concern and condemnation. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we had trouble we wouldn\u2019t stay. So far we\u2019ve had no trouble. I don\u2019t know why [assaults] are happening to us. I think maybe it\u2019s the younger generation and social media. We don\u2019t do anything to anyone,\u201d Ms Manu said. <\/p>\n

She said all the Indian community wants is to be safe and happy. <\/p>\n

\u201cNegative messages spread fast. It\u2019s been in the media in India and our families in India are concerned. They say that if we are worried we should come home but we want to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MariamMariam Philashuili from Georgia at the International Fest in Dublin on Saturday. Photograph: Sarah Slater <\/p>\n

The mother-of-three is one of several nurses and IT professionals living and working in Navan, Co Meath and in Dublin while also nursing in St Vincent\u2019s and the Mater hospitals. <\/p>\n

Sheril Rino, a nurse from India , moved here from Dubai two years ago because she was attracted to the \u201cwelcoming culture\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cRecently I\u2019ve become more aware [that] our children who play with others from Poland, etc are not mindful of any cultural difference. But in our minds we are and that\u2019s only recently because of the incidents. But this can happen anywhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t know what the origin of this is. We have lots of friends who are upset for us as they don\u2019t understand it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government needs to be more clear about why we are here. We are coming here legally and coming here to work. People can think we have come here illegally and that we are refugees but we have worked hard in our studies and nowcome to Ireland and be part of a community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CarmenCarmen Oritz from Seville, Spain at the International Fest in Dublin on Saturday. Photograph: Sarah Slater <\/p>\n

Mr Finnerty said for the first time in the history of the festival they had a discreet Garda presence and security personnel monitoring the daylong event. <\/p>\n

\u201cAn Irish man was being harassed by young lads recently \u2013 but it was an Indian chap, who was 12 or 13, who went to his aid. All we want is for people to live and work happily together,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The Dublin native said the festival has grown in popularity and \u201cwe\u2019ve never had any trouble and will not allow it\u201d.<\/p>\n

Carmen Ortiz (24) from Seville, Spain, who has lived here for three years and works with Smashing Times Theatre company, came to Ireland because there are \u201cmore work opportunities\u201d here.<\/p>\n

\"SecuritySecurity at the Dun Laoghaire Indian Festival at Kilbogget Park, Cabinteely. Photograph: Chris Maddaloni\/The Irish Times <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Irish community is really welcoming,\u201d she said. \u201cTheatre is what I\u2019ve always worked in so Ireland had many opportunities for me. I\u2019ve never experienced any racism here. Our cultures are very similar.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mariam Philashuili (13) and her mother Nino Ebelastuili, from Georgia, moved to Ireland two years ago. Ms Ebelastuili\u2019s husband\u2019s employer sent him here to work for three years.<\/p>\n

Miss Philashuili said she was nervous about starting her education here. \u201cI thought everyone was going to be Irish. I was so scared but there are so many different nationalities there along with the Irish,\u201d she says. \u201cEveryone is the same no matter where you are from.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019ve never had any trouble, we really love Ireland and we want to be here,\u201d an Indian nurse…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,52,18,13,14,8030,6,19,387,17,11,12,15,16,5,383,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-19585","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-dublin","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-garda-siochana","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-india","18":"tag-ireland","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-spain","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}