The Boy's Youth Club of ICCI successfully completed this year’s Summer Youth Road Trip 2024 for boys titled:
“Ireland Top to Bottom”
“Fun”, “Best Ever”, “Great”, “Unique”, “Inspiring”, “Enjoying with friends”, “Enjoyable”, “Helpful”, “Adventures”, just few of the feedback comments about our trip.
Again, there was one bus, group of friends taking a road trip for 4 Days, exploring many interesting places in Ireland, reaching the Most Northern points of Ireland and the most Southern, sleeping in Masjids and meeting many Muslim Communities across Ireland.
It all began on Friday 2 August, 7am when we set off and our first stop was a place with a very important significance for the Muslims in Ireland. Drogheda is the town where in year 1847 the Ottoman Sultan Abdl Majeed sent ships carrying grain and food to the island helping the people in Ireland in the period of the Great Famine (https://youtu.be/TQgAgecfIqA?si=c0tRT5XRnPszBs1H).
From there the plan was to reach the Top of Ireland, the most northern part of Ireland “Malin Head” and we did it. We reached our destination and discovered one beautiful place in the very north of Ireland. A stunning canyon with unique scenery. We also discovered nice beach beside the Malin Head quay. Needless to say that we spend some quality time there too.
Our next stop was Letterkenny. Brother Ayub and Dr. Kamran a members of the Donegal Islamic Community Centre, welcomed us into their small and cosy Mosque. We had a nice reminder by Nafy who is the youth coordinator there and he was ones part of our ICCI youth club. After that we were invited to tasty dinner. The night was nice and short and the next day was preparing more discoveries.
Bandoran, a Holyday spot in the West Coast played a host for our next unforgettable surfing experience. The waves were big, the surf boards were fast and the feeling riding the waves was great alhamdulaillah.
The Road Trip continued to the small town of Ballyhaunis where the first purposely build mosque as a mosque was established back in year 1988. The “Al-Kausar” Mosquе build and established by the late brother the businessman Sher Mohammed Rafique who started Halal Meats in Ballyhaunis (may Allah have mercy on him), surprised us with its unique and charming design. At that time in Ireland there were other mosques, however they were all existing buildings converted as mosques. It is part of the interesting history of Muslim presence in Ireland. Again we were warmly welcomed by Brother Muhammad Cherbatji (a member of the management board), who narrated the story behind the Mosque, the Muslim community in Ballyhaunis and at the end looked after us with a tasty pizza.
From there the journey took us to Limerick’s Al Furqan Mosque where we were very nicely surprised to find a gym in the mosque. The boys played a little game and tried out their power on all the equipment and between themselves. The host Sheikh Abdullah provided for us the stay in this unique mosque and we felled welcomed and part of the community. We had a good night sleep and the next day we continued for our big day in Killarney National Park.
There are so much to see in Killarney National Park, so for that reason we rented bicycles to explore more of this natural beauty. We enjoyed the Lake, the Ross Castle, reached the Tork Waterfall and more and more…
For the night we discovered nice charming Mosque, the Islamic Cultural centre of Killarney. The hosts Mr Iqbal, Imam Muhammed Sayed and their team were very glad to receive us and were very caring for our overnight stay in the Mosque. We were invited for a tasty shawarma dinner and a nice place for stay over. The imam enlightened our night with a humble reminder… After salah Isha, we had our own UFC Wrestling World Championship and at the final the Undefeated, Undisputed champ Wael defended his title.
On the next day we continued our journey and reached our destination, the most southern point of Ireland – Mizen Head. It was another amazing place with stunning views, interesting history, and sandy beach in beautiful Ireland.
From there we came back to the place we started our journey, the Islamic Cultural Centre in Dublin.
Everyone shared very positive feedback of the journey and their experience. (Watch snippets of the journey on the reel here https://www.instagram.com/reel/C-qRz9qsn0J/?igsh=Ynd0MWpjbGk1dnFo )
We would like to thank Allah for giving us this Road Trip and to thank all the people who went out of their way to welcome us and did look after us. We felt the very warm welcome and care for us, as well as happiness in the eyes of our hosts to see us, and interact with us everywhere we went. May Allah reward them abundantly for their efforts?
It was great journey and we will do it next year again Insha’Allah!
~ Zahri
