![\"Dr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/B7WAO3TB4VB5XGYVOYYXNMESVU.jpg\")
Dr Mohamed Elbadri is a GP in Cork city. Photograph: Shane O’Neill\/Coalesce <\/p>\n
He felt he had not offered the necessary support to this patient because he had not understood the very Irish phrase used by the man. Elbadri said when there is a lack of understanding, \u201cyou lose the confidence between patient and the doctor\u201d.<\/p>\n
He moved to Ireland in 2023 to develop his career and access educational opportunities for his children. The experience, he said, has been hugely positive for the family but, like his colleagues on the podium, he acknowledged there had been challenges.<\/p>\n
Dr Nallasegarampillai Muthalvan, from Sri Lanka, said he had been here for a while before landing a job in Co Mayo more than a decade ago. When driving there for the first time, he said, he was slightly perplexed by all the \u201cMayo for Sam\u201d signs along the road. <\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ELXOHSO5TKMN2QMIWHO6AMRWHU.jpg\")
The Prudential Building in Chicago lit up with the slogan ‘Mayo For Sam’ before the 2020 All-Ireland football final between Mayo and Dublin. Photograph: Bob Reiter via Twitter <\/p>\n
Maybe, he thought, Sam was a team captain. It was two years before somebody explained it was a reference to the Sam Maguire, the trophy awarded to the All-Ireland senior football champions.<\/p>\n
It was another of the kind of minor cultural barriers that made connecting with Irish colleagues a little harder, but Muthalvan said he kept on trying. <\/p>\n
\u201cI used to drink with everybody,\u201d he said with a grin. \u201cWhen they lost, we drank more. And that happened again. It was heartbreaking but I was more trying to blend in and still, I wasn\u2019t fitting in completely. That cultural bonding will more naturally occur between Irish guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr Alina Fatima, from Pakistan, who works in an acute hospital in Dublin, echoed the sentiment, but also spoke of a colleague whose family came to call her their adopted daughter after the pair became friends. She was regularly invited over for meals for Christmas, Easter and other occasions. <\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019d have got that anywhere else,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Dr](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/MDCP35CPFFGNBC3VBG447XLHXM.jpg\")
Dr Alina Fatima. Photograph: Shane O’Neill\/Coalesce <\/p>\n
All three spoke warmly of the welcome they received in Ireland and said they were happy in their work and wanted to make their lives here. <\/p>\n
However, it was suggested there might be room to do a little more to reach out and help new arrivals acclimatise. There was also concern expressed about the length of time it takes, as qualified doctors, to achieve Irish registration in some areas and to access consultant training positions. <\/p>\n
Much of what was being suggested, said moderator Ingrid Miley, seemed like \u201can open goal\u201d for the HSE or the IMO, whose president, Prof Matthew Sadlier, told members \u201cthe Irish health services, and the people of this country, are utterly dependent on the contribution of international doctors, nurses and support staff\u201d. <\/p>\n
Elbadri said \u201cinternational doctors aren\u2019t coming to Ireland trying to take someone else\u2019s spot\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe wouldn\u2019t like that in Sudan if someone was coming from abroad and taking our jobs. We\u2019re just looking for our chance to develop as professionals and the Irish health system needs more doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, there were inevitable incidents of racism, with Fatima saying she has been abused at and outside work and also assaulted. She said things have become worse recently.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re a person of colour,\u201d she said when asked about her experience, \u201cbut you\u2019re also a woman. So the abuse that\u2019s directed at you can be a bit more strongly worded, it can have themes of a sexual nature that are not pleasant to hear. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when you\u2019re hit, I think they\u2019re aware they have more physical strength than you so it will be hard for you to protect yourself. So it can be extra, I would say, for a woman but obviously I cannot speak for another gender in terms of their experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elbadri said he had not been subjected to racism but knew other doctors who had. <\/p>\n
\u201cI can only speak from the perspective of GP doctors working in private settings. If you have a friendly, supportive superior or employer, you\u2019ll have the support needed. But I do know doctors, female doctors, who had experienced racial abuse and their employers told them \u2018this is part of the job\u2019,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
All were reluctant to raise the issue and were mainly responding to questions about it, with Elbadri saying he has seen videos on YouTube with doctors talking about similar cultural issues and then looked at the comments, which he found \u201csickening\u201d. <\/p>\n
In his experience, he said, \u201ceverybody\u2019s friendly, whether it\u2019s at work, my neighbourhood, my kids\u2019 school, I\u2019ve never faced anything like this but I do wish it could be stopped\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI had a patient who was a smoker,\u201d recalled Cork-based GP Dr Mohamed Elbadri, \u201cand I just asked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,97947,43,3324,31030,91893],"class_list":{"0":"post-396054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-irish-medical-organisation","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-pakistan","13":"tag-sri-lanka","14":"tag-sudan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}