European Week of Sport, which runs from 23-30 September, stresses the importance of embracing diversity and inclusion in sport and boasts a remarkable ambassador in Leitrim hurler Zak Moradi.
A Lory Meagher Cup winner with the Ridge County in 2010, Moradi’s backstory illustrates how sport can act as a powerful force for integration.
Semaco 'Zak’ Moradi was born to a Kurdish family from Iran, but one that the Iran–Iraq War had displaced to Iraq.
Decades of persecution has given rise to the apt Kurdish proverb that they have "no friends but the mountains" and a difficult life for a family of 13 became even more gruelling under the regime of Saddam Hussein.
"You had to just say how great Saddam was because there was secret service people everywhere," Moradi told RTÉ Sport.
"If you said one bad thing your whole family could have been imprisoned or never have been seen again. That’s the way Iraq was."
Preserving Kurdish culture in the face of persecution was often something that fell to the community, including Kurdish rebels.
"When we went to primary school over there we learned Kurdish, but if we wanted to go to secondary school, it was in Arabic.
"But the Kurdish school we went to was funded by the Kurdish rebels and the Kurdish rebellion fought for the Kurdish language.
"I only realised that when I came here with my family. I thought it was the Iraqi government. It was the Kudish rebels who were living in the Qandil Mountains fighting for Kurdish rights.
"Most people didn’t go to secondary school when they finished primary. They just stopped going to school when they were 12 years of age or 13 years of age."
Impromptu schools popped up in desert camps teaching Farsi, which is the main language in Iran, as well as Kurdish and English. Moradi’s parents’ former home in northwestern Iran – or eastern Kurdisatan, if you prefer – was becoming a far more attractive option than continuing life in northern Iraq, but a move to Ireland was to become the ultimate destination for the family.
An intended to move to Irish shores in 2000 fell through when Moradi’s father was incarcerated in Abu Graib prison, a facility notorious for its torture and summary execution of political prisoners.
A pardon allowed the family to eventually make their way to Carrick-on-Shannon in 2002, with the language skills older brother Mokhtar had picked up along the way easing their passage into life in a foreign land.
"When we came to Ireland, his English was fluent. I couldn’t believe it. That was all learned in a refugee camp. It shows what education can do, learning and becoming smarter.
"When we came to Ireland it was a very big help, being able to speak fluently in Arabic, Kursish Farsi and English.
"It’s amazing to be able to speak fluently in four languages, it’s like having a degree."
Moradi has served as a diversity advocate in the Gaelic Games community, and while keen not to diminish experiences with racism in Ireland, they paled into insignificance with the plight of the Kurdish people.
"I’m not going to say that I’ve never had racism, and I have probably like any other foreigner in the country would have got some sort of racism, but we wouldn’t let that bring us down because of where we have come from.
"Kurdish people have lost millions of people in genocides that have happened to them by Turks, by the Iraqi regime, and obviously the Syrian regime.
"Even to this day there are still 20 million Kudish people living in Turkey under fear and there are another three million Kurdish people living in Syria under fear.
"They’re even terrified to use the work ‘Kurdistan’. I can use the word ‘Kurdistan’ every day in Ireland. I’ve that freedom."
Moradi, who now plays at club level for Thomas Davis in the capital, spent only two years in Leitrim before moving to Dublin. However, it proved a seminal period that ignited his love for hurling.
Picking up a hurl for the first time as an 11-year-old meant that he had much to learn, but it was a challenge that was to prove far from insurmountable
"I’d say I would have been a little bit behind," he said.
"Most kids in Ireland probably start at six years of age, and if their family are GAA, they’ll have a hurl in their hand when they’re four or five, or a football.
"I’d say I was always a couple of years behind everybody. I had a lot of catching up to do as well.
"But at the same time, when you look at GAA, I played with lads that were very, very good when they were 14,15, but when it came to minor they weren't the best players anymore.
"The weaker lads had bypassed them. You can be a great player at underage and you can win everything at underage, but that doesn’t mean that you’ll make it at playing at a higher standard at senior level.
"I’ve seen this over the years, even with our club. I’ve seen kids that were very, very good when they were underage, very good when they were under-15, very good under-16, but when they turned minor the weaker lads were the best players.
"There were lads I’ve known play minor B football for their club… and a year later they were on the senior team. I’ve seen it with my own eyes, playing senior for 13 years.
"What does that say?
"Obviously it says keep going and never give up because you just don’t know what’s down the line."
Zak Moradi leaves us with words to live life by.
European Week of Sport is a week-long celebration of sport which promotes physical activity in people of all ages, backgrounds, or fitness levels. Sport Ireland is calling on you and your family to get out and #BeActive between 23-30 September and who knows, this may be the start of a new found love for sport.
