Kurd Community with Nora Burke rsm in Library
The slogan the Kurdish community chose for a very important event in Carrick-on-Shannon on June 1st, 2011 was “A Taste of Something Different”. One would imagine that this was possibly an invitation to sample some Kurdish food, but while there was food to be sampled the slogan really referred to the launch of a Kurdish Reading Section in Leitrim County Council’s Library in Carrick-on-Shannon. Quite rightly they felt that the nourishment from books in the Kurdish language had as significant a treat for this community as the joy of savouring their native home cooked dishes.
Members of Leitrim County Council, Leitrim Development Refugee Support Group, local politicians as well as neighbours and friends all came that day to hear a young Kurdish woman explain how they had missed so much having access to their own literary writing. As refugees they came from Camp Jordan with no books, with little belongings and with only the memories of what they had suffered in that Refugee Camp.
To have access, now, to books – novels, short stories, fact and fiction- some translated from other languages, children’s books, and academic resources- all in their own language meant that another step had been taken in Carrick-on-Shannon to give the Kurdish community an obvious presence and importance in the local town library.
Two Ladies in Traditional Dress
Lifting one of the books and leafing through it gave one a real sense of the difficulty Kurdish people must have had when struggling to read English. Their language has no recognisable alphabet to us and since they read from right to left they are surely at a great disadvantage. However, to have mastered so much in the past few years in terms of conversation, reading and writing, is a great credit to their willingness and real desire to integrate appreciate and understand their new homeland.
Kurd Community and Locals at Launch in Library
On June 1st congratulations were extended to all involved in this great addition to the library but especially to the Kurdish community for enriching our lives and for giving us “A Taste of Something Different” in the town.
Nora Burke rsm
Mercy Justice Co-Ordinator
Western Province
