Search Results for 'Lebanon'

A trip to North Korea; an adventure to Afghanistan; or a sojourn to Somalia are most likely not the types of holidays of which most Irish people are dreaming. Yet it is all in a day’s work for Renmore native Shane Horan who leads tour groups to these countries, as well as many other places “that your mother would rather you stay away from.”

Building a wall along the Mexican-American border; banning people from a number of Muslim majority countries from entering the US; 'Fortress Europe' against the needs of Syrian civilians fleeing war - the last two years have seen opinion turn against immigrants.

The biggest humanitarian crisis since the aftermath of World War Two has led to an exodus of five million people from Syria since 2012. In an effort to help refugees living within the Middle East, a small number of individuals from Galway in February 2016 became part of an ambitious digital learning programme designed to bring computer coding skills to thousands of children, teenagers and teachers living in camps and districts across the region. Known as Refugee Code Week (RCW) the initiative, led by the German software corporation SAP in partnership with the United Nations Refugee Agency(UNHCR) and the Galway Education Centre, has developed course content and provided teams of IT volunteers from across three continents to upskill teachers from Syria and other Middle Eastern countries in delivering coding programmes to young refugees and the youth of host nations from eight years to twenty years of age. The Galway volunteers taking part in the programme are Bernard Kirk, director of the Galway Education Centre and co-founder of RCW, Nuala Allen (SAP in Parkmore), Niall McCormick (Colmac Robotics) and Brendan Smith (NUI Galway). BRENDAN SMITH, who has through his Outreach projects at the university since 2004 worked with asylum seekers in Ireland, was seconded from the Insight Centre for Data Analytics at NUI Galway to become a master instructor in RCW as well as in a sister programme, namely the highly successful Africa Code Week that has been operating since June 2015. Here is his story.

The Middle East has experienced unimaginable devastation since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. As in all wars, civilians are the innocent victims. In what was once one of the most modern countries in the region, it is estimated that 470,000 inhabitants have died since 2011, over 7.6 millions are internally displaced within Syria and over five million were forced to leave.

THE CONGO 1961, and 155 Irish soldiers are surrounded by more than 3,000 soldiers of the Katanga insurgency, heavily armed with artillery, heavy machine guns, and a fighter bomber.

While you and your family are tucking into your festive dinner in the warmth and comfort of your homes and family circles, worrying about last-minute gifts, and whether or not to put an extra bottle of wine into the fridge, spare a thought for the troops of the 54th Infantry Group who will be at democracy’s outpost as part of the UNDOF mission on the Golan Heights throughout the holiday period.

Athlone and Garrycastle native Martin Ward is gearing up to compete in the K1 World Championships in Italy next month.

Galway soldiers will be heading on a new United Nations mission next week with the 54th Infantry.

IT IS fashionable for reviewers, of the perpetually disappointed variety, to lodge Basil Fawlty style complaints against a poet’s first published collection.