At the National Basketball Arena in the Dublin suburb of Tallaght, it was a mix of quiet holiness and children’s laughter. Men and women bowed and prayed fervently in one part of the venue while children played everywhere else.
That was a precursor to when the praying ended and a fleet of bouncy castles sprouted, seemingly out of nowhere, like mushrooms in a field following a hot August night.
About 4,000 people attended Eid al-Adha, with food stalls positioned inside and out. The aroma of barbecued meat filled the air and flavoured the day. The Eid is one of the two great festivals in the Muslim calendar.
“It is our Christmas,” said Mohamed Nasr from Egypt, who works in tech and has been in Ireland for five years.
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He was at the arena because of the dispute at the Islamic Cultural Centre (ICCI) in Dublin’s Clonskeagh which has resulted in its closure.
The dispute has arisen out of the alleged unlawful appointment of new directors to the centre’s operating company, the Al Maktoum Foundation CLG.
Mr Nasr lives near the ICCI. “I’m listening to both sides,” he said, noting that the next High Court hearing involving the centre will be in late June.
Regardless of the closure, he says “people have to celebrate, they have to enjoy themselves”.
Eid at the arena was hosted by the South Dublin Islamic Centre, which was set up in 2020. Eid celebrations also took place at Croke Park on Friday.
It was Ahmed Elsayed’s first Eid at the arena. Normally, he would celebrate it at the ICCI. Mr Elsayed, who also works in tech, said the Tallaght venue was “the place to be on a nice day”.
Outside the arena, a man registered his displeasure that such an event was taking place there. He had a camera phone in one hand and the leash of his calmer German Shepherd in the other. He made unfounded claims about St Patrick’s Day now being called Green Day, along with other anti-immigration rhetoric.
