"I draw on my faith every day. I draw on my faith when I wake up in the morning for God to give me strength to go through the rest of the day."
RTÉ News spoke to people of different faiths in Ireland in 2018.
Here, Lorraine O’Connor speaks about how she embraced Islam and her life as a Muslim woman.
"Faith to me is a way of life. A way of expressing myself.
"I have to pray five times a day. I wear my hijab. I do my wudu (ritual wash). How I speak, how I talk, how I treat people, how I give in charity, how I look after my husband, how I look after my family - so all of that is practising in faith.
"I draw on my faith every day. I draw on my faith when I wake up in the morning for God to give me strength to go through the rest of the day.
"By giving and helping the less fortunate is a major part of one of the Five Pillars of Islam.
"I was born a Roman Catholic so my faith did change and I became a Muslim. So in 2015, Alhamdulillah, which means thank God, I found, for me, the truth and Islam was that truth. And it took a lot of studying. The first time that I came to know about Islam was in 1987. So from 1987 to 2005, I didn't just jump into this randomly, I looked at it and studied it and I wanted to see where I was going in my path in life before I actually took this step.
"I have embraced Islam and I have embraced my life as a Muslim woman. And I'm very happy. I'm not saying there's no challenges, and there's not going to be more challenges. There is going to be lots of challenges in life and it's going to be very difficult and people will come after you and people will ridicule you. And that has happened but I have to continue to be strong and keep going for me as the Muslim woman that I am, for my family, and know that my faith will carry me through anything."
