Discovering the Dublin 8 Mosque by Thomas Prior

The Mosque was a Presbyterian church before being converted in 1983 Photo by Alice Tauleigne

On the South Circular Road lies a mosque, where the Islamic Foundation of Ireland is situated. There’s not only a mosque, but a restaurant where people bond with Muslim community.

by Thomas M. Prior

Inside the office of the Islamic Foundation lies things you’d typically see on a desk; books, computer, and notes scattered everywhere. There’s also a picture of Mecca, the place of pilgrimage for Muslims worldwide. Their spiritual home is special, even for Irish Muslims, who usually face south-east when they pray in the direction of Mecca.

This is the office of Fares Sabbagh, who is part of the administrative team there. The routine at the mosque is typically a busy one and it especially follows an everyday schedule. “On a daily basis, we have the five prayers that would be conducted here in the mosque and led by the Imam,” he said. “We would also have the Friday sermon, we also arrange funerals from start to finish, we do school visits for any schools that want to come in and visit the mosque just for a tour, and if they are looking to cover a particular topic about Islam with their students, then we also provide classes as well.”

The Muslim community in Dublin 8 are known for charity events and often help out in the wider area, especially working with the homeless and other kinds of issues.

“One thing that we’d like to do is keep it open and support other organisations as well, so we get on a regular basis different organisations’ that would contact us and say “Can we do a collection after the Friday prayer?” and we’d be more than obliging to do that, as long as they have charitable status and what not,” he said. “So, when that other organisations who would for example-feed the homeless, we’d allow them to come into the mosque on a Friday to do a collection there, so that there’s a bit of collaboration and support.”

A Muslim women’s group called The Muslim Sisters of Éire, unaffiliated with the mosque has been notable for its own contribution towards helping the homeless. They are usually at the GPO in O’Connell Street giving food to the poor and needy. But another group called AMAL which is a women’s group often engage too. They are mostly affiliated with the mosque. “They do coffee mornings for the ladies every Wednesday,” said Fares. “In addition to that, they actually helped us put together English classes for the women who were migrants here

Fares Sabbagh. Photo by Alice Tauleigne

and can’t speak English too well.”

Often at times, most residents in the local area generally get on well with the people at the mosque. There’s great feedback from many of the mosque’s own neighbours. Sometimes however, when there’s mention of anything on the news concerning a terrorist attack for instance, there would be hostility- but rather it is in the minority.

“We have good relations with them, and one of the reasons is because, my predecessor, what he used to do is they’d go out to the neighbours themselves and they would give out leaflets and put notices in the door saying that we’re having an exhibition,” he said. “So, in general I think, the reaction is OK. We don’t really feel like there’s a hatred or a pressure or anything like that.”

Beside the mosque, there is a restaurant that serves food according to Islamic culture, like halal meat. A lot of people like to drop by most of the time. Fares himself is a great believer, along with other Muslims that food brings people together and that hospitality is a key component of their way of life. “Getting together, sharing meals- that opens up people’s hearts,” he said. “What’s the old saying “a way to a man’s heart is his belly! We do get a lot of different people, different faces here, so I know there’s a Chinese lady that regularly visits the restaurant. We get people from different backgrounds, a lot of North Africans would visit, a lot of Sudanese, a lot of Somalis, from the Irish public as well.”

The restaurant has been running for 35 years,

and was run by someone who passed away, but his son took over, but now it is just part of the Islamic Foundation of Ireland who are responsible for it. With that length of time, it has been running, most of the Muslim community in Ireland have been here for much longer! “My family was actually one of the oldest Syrian families that came here,” said Fares. “I think it’s safe to assume they’ve been here around the 50s and 60s, that’s as far as I know. But I think generally they have been accepted very much so.”

Since the lockdown and the situation with Covid-19 in Ireland, most religious places of worship had been closed down due to the guidelines from the HSE. The mosque was no exception. For most of the lockdown, prayers had been cancelled. “So, when the corona (virus) hit in the very beginning, we actually closed down the mosque, which was really controversial,” said Fares. “In the end of course, we said “look, the decision has to come back to whatever the HSE guidelines are, and whatever the law says”. And then, the entire board agreed and they said ‘look, if the country says we have to go into lockdown, we’re going to lock it down’, and we did.”

The future of the Dublin 8 mosque through Fares’ eyes is one that is hopeful. “I’d say the services that we provide right now and the supports that we provide right now, if we can keep doing what we’re doing, but improving it as much as we possibly can.”