programmes are graduating next month. <\/a><\/p>\nThe students presented President Connolly with a painting and a piece of traditional Palestinian embroidery.<\/p>\n
Responding to the president on behalf of the students, TCD Philosophy and Creative Writing student Sahar Rabah said: “I would like to express our sincere gratitude to the people of Ireland for opening their hearts to us”.<\/p>\n
“Here we have found dignity, kindness, and a chance to believe in our futures,” she added.<\/p>\n
Trauma and shock<\/p>\n
Students who spoke to RT\u00c9 News thanked the Irish people and spoke about a deep sense of belonging they have in Ireland. But they also referred to their ongoing trauma.<\/p>\n
“To be honest I am still in trauma and shock. Yes, I’m studying and living my life but at the same time it feels like a dream. You feel like you have two different lives” said Dima RH Shamaly, a student of Electronic Engineering at UCD.<\/p>\n
“My family are still there, and I lost my father two months ago”.<\/p>\n
Dima says he was killed in an air strike. He was 53-years-old and a doctor who worked with UNICEF.<\/p>\n
She received news of his death over Facebook.<\/p>\n
![\"Students](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024b3f4-614.jpg\"\/)
\nStudents from Gaza at \u00c1ras an Uachtar\u00e1in<\/p>\n
“I would say there is a big conflict [inside me]. It feels so messy. You are the one who survived, but you haven’t actually survived, because your family is there, your friends are there, it’s your homeland, everyone you know is there,” she said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a mixture of feelings since you are here while your family is still back in Gaza,” said Jehad Al Farra, a student of Applied Linguistics at UCD.<\/p>\n
“You suffer emotionally every day thinking of them but you have to persist and make your family in Gaza proud of you.”<\/p>\n
“We are really grateful to the Irish Government and we are doing our best to just keep going,” he added.<\/p>\n
The students listened to traditional Irish music from concertina player P\u00e1draig Rynne and keyboardist Rory McCarthy.<\/p>\n
‘We feel like we are in our second home’<\/p>\n
The students clapped before some of them began to dance. A group of young women and men linked arms and laughed as they danced in a circle. A smiling President Connolly was among those looking on.<\/p>\n
Earlier, she had praised the students for managing to keep joy in their lives. “It’s a testimony to your spirit,” she had said.<\/p>\n
“In Palestine we have our dancing which is Dabkeh, and it is somehow close to Irish dancing”, one of the dancers, student Ibrahim Abusaqer said. “Ireland is known for music and its rich culture, so I felt I wanted to join the other students and dance.”<\/p>\n
“As I said to the President, here in Ireland we feel like we are in our second home”.<\/p>\n
Ibrahim described his visit to \u00c1ras an Uachtarain and his meeting with the president as “a great moment”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Catherine Connolly has paid tribute to students from Gaza who are studying in Ireland, telling them at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-551542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551542","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=551542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}