Refugee Resettlement in Rural Ireland

The arrival to our new home was in many ways, just another move. We had lived between tents, containers and hotels since we left Syria. It’s difficult to explain how we felt–at last we were safe. Yet, there was feelings of loss, grief, loneliness and fear. Our youngest child was just two weeks old. We also had two primary school aged children and a toddler. We were all exhausted.

When we moved in to our new home some men came to help us move in. They helped us with practical tasks–assembled the cot, made the beds and carried our luggage up the stairs.

The next day, the previous tenant of the house called by, to show us the running of the house; simple things such as controlling the heating, how to turn off the water supply if there was a leak, and where fuse box was located. Little things that meant so much to a family who hadn’t lived in a house for some years.

Our neighbours came to our house to welcome us, even though we couldn’t speak much English. Now, many of the local people have drank some Arabic coffee and I have cooked some native Syrian food for people in our new community to taste.

The people in our new town made sure that Santa Clause knew where we lived, and for the first time ever, in December 2018, with four small children we celebrated Christmas. The kids loved it!

Over two years later we are very happy in our new community. We can speak good English now. I have met other mothers at the mother and toddler group and my husband has a job working as a caretaker in the local Family Resource Centre in the town. My 8-year-old daughter has learned the tin whistle, and when I cannot bring her to the class a kind lady called collects her from our home and brings her to the class.

So despite the fact that we miss our families and friends very much, when we see our children happily playing with our neighbours in the neighbourhood it reassures us that we made the right decision to flee Syria.