THERE’S nothing like breaking bread to bring people together, be it pita, chapati, paska, or soda bread.
Bread offers us sustenance on so many levels, and in a symbolic sharing of food and camaraderie, Limerick City’s migrant community chowed down with local residents on Lord Edward Street to celebrate the best the Treaty City has to offer this past week.
To mark World Refugee Day in Limerick, visitors to Tait Community Kitchen for the Refugee Week Café got to savour homemade dishes from across the globe, including Honduras, Mexico, Pakistan, Nigeria, Algeria, Afghanistan, Palestine, Liberia, Morocco, Ukraine, Congo, and more.
All the delectable dishes on display were prepared by local migrant and refugee communities living locally.
There was a warm, welcoming, and friendly atmosphere at the free event, which made a Limerick lunchtime all the more satisfying by the huge selection of appetising platters from all over the world.
Held as part of Refugee Week, spearheaded by UNHCR Ireland (the UN Refugee Agency), the lunchtime get together was run by Doras with the support of the Limerick City and County Council’s Integration Team.
The theme of this year’s Refugee Week was ‘Community as a Super Power’ and this was certainly evident at the hearty buffet.
The room was alive with the aroma of enticing cuisine from different cultures, harmonious live music, and the universal language of laughter as a recipe for integration and tolerance was dished out.
“Variety is the spice of life,” said Thomondgate native John O’Halloran, attending with members of St John’s Men’s Shed.
“As the Irish saying goes ‘Céad míle fáilte’ and people have to remember that we were immigrants ourselves. We went to Australia and America, and even now, in modern days, the Irish are in Japan and Dubai. So if we are welcome in those countries, we should extend the same courtesy here.
“In the sixties and seventies, many Irish people went to London to live and work over there. We have been welcomed all over the world, and it’s only right we welcome all nationalities in our own country.”
Maimoona Khalid from Pakistan, now living in Dooradoyle, told me about her grá for the Limerick people and how one particular neighbour has won her heart and is considered her “Irish granny”.
“I have been living in Limerick for the past 10 years. One lady that lives next to my apartment has been very good to me. She is so lovely. She calls me and gives me advice like a typical Irish granny,” Maimoona enthused.
Now studying a Masters in Public Health, the young Pakistani woman had nothing but praise for the Irish community and the friends she has made locally over the past decade.
Good food, they say, is all the sweeter when shared with good friends. This certainly proved the case at the Limerick Refugee Cafe as new friendships were struck up over the breaking of bread.
