Although small there are now a settled and growing number of Muslims living in Galway but they lack a place to worship.
As Galway has changed in recent years, so too has its Muslim community. Muslims currently practice out of ‘Tír Na nÓg’ a private terraced house in Mervue, a suburb located on east side of Galway City.
Dr Muhammad Tariq Khokhar estimates there are 86 or 87 Muslims in Galway. They are mainly from Libya, South Africa, Mauritius, and Palestine and are students, doctors or employed in textile manufacturing.
Muslims are expected to pray five times a day, and pray collectively every Friday. Therefore it is important for them to have a centre for their growing community. They have started a fund-raising campaign to finance the establishment of a place of worship in Galway city centre and are looking for financial assistance from Muslim governments overseas. Muhammad Iqbal adds.
It doesn’t have to be a Mosque, it can be any place of worship and that place of worship will become the spiritual centre of the community.
They have also made an application to the local council to see if there are any provisions for religious groups. However, no such provisions are currently available.
PM was a magazine series reporting on aspects of Irish life with interludes for music from Irish performers. It first began on Tuesday, 20 September, 1977 and was initially aired three nights a week on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7.00pm on RTÉ 1.
The original presenters John O' Donoghue, Áine O'Connor, Nicholas Coffey and Doireann Ní Bhriain were later joined by Pat Kenny.
"As editor Noel Smyth sees it, the Tuesday programme will consist mainly of film reports on topical events anywhere in Ireland, the Wednesday edition will concentrate on studio discussions, and the Thursday programme will be in Irish, with just as wide a brief as the other two."
(RTÉ Guide, 16 September, 1977, Vol.1, No.37, p.18) PM ran until Thursday, 12 April, 1979.
This episode of ‘PM’ was broadcast on 24 January 1978. The reporter is Doireann Ní Bhriain.
