New to new Parish: Hamad Arshad turned up out-of Pakistan inside the 2002
Hamad Arshad together with girl Suakyna (8), Shaane-Zahra (2), Urwah (4) and you can Libah (6) at their house during the Dunboyne. Photograph: Conor Healy/Picture it Photos
Whenever Hamad Arshad very first arrived in Ireland during the 2002, he invested the majority of his leisure time in a single specific spot – a phone box when you look at the Blanchardstown. Effect homesick and you can alone, the young Pakistani do walking regarding home where he had been residing in Castleknock towards the Blanchardstown town with a major international getting in touch with cards buried meticulously to the their handbag.
“We however think about I utilized the cell phone booth from new personal path, it was another smart unit in which we could fool around with the notes. I would spend extended thereon cell phone, more than thirty minutes.”
Arshad, exactly who was born in the city out-of Sialkot throughout the Punjab province out-of Pakistan, had arrived at Ireland to work in a friend’s Indian takeaway and you may eatery within the Laytown, Co Meath.
‘I located Ireland extremely quiet and that i had a beneficial lifestyle here therefore i spent 9 many years working in one Indian takeaway’
“It is nearly twenty years back however, I nonetheless contemplate it had been a giant change for my situation. I would not ever been to any almost every other country and you can I would personally already been way of living with my members of the family, my personal brothers and sisters in advance of We kept. We had been most connected to one another, I was unfortunate making her or him.”
Inside the Pakistan, Arshad assisted his father along with his small chairs business just after finishing university. The guy later on receive work as a cook for the a resorts and following secured a visa to come quickly to Ireland.