At first glance the picturesque town of Baltinglass, Co Wicklow, does not look like the sort of place that a group of displaced Kosovan refugees would call home.
The rolling green hills of Wicklow bear little resemblance to mountainous Kosovo, but for the past three months the small town has become a home from home for 48 Kosovars who spent time in Stankovic refugee camp in Macedonia earlier this year.
"I have very good words for Ireland, it's a very good place, the people are very friendly and humane. I think we are very welcome here. Everyone says hello to us in the street," Besnik Mustafa said this week.
Besnik (24) evaded Serb troops in the forests of Kosovo before reaching the Stankovic camp. A few weeks later, he was given a choice of Germany, Ireland or the US as a temporary haven. "I don't know exactly why I chose Ireland, but America was too far from Kosovo, Germany had too many Albanian refugees already, and I knew that in Ireland they spoke English," he says.
Besnik has not been disappointed. Local people in Baltinglass have worked hard to integrate the Kosovars into everyday life. Churches of all denominations in the town have been very supportive and, in an ironic twist, the Muslim Kosovars are staying at a former convent, Rathcornan House.
The clergymen are members of a voluntary committee which raises funds for the refugees and endeavours to involve them in community life. The local GAA club, for instance, has given the Kosovars sports equipment, invited them to train with the team and brought them to Croke Park.
Such goodwill has eroded any prejudice which may have been felt by local people. Frank O'Brien (13) thought the Kosovars would be very different to Irish people, "but after a few games of football I changed my mind. We are friends now and I see them every day," he said.
Many of the younger refugees have had their education disrupted. Sixteen are of school-going age and are preparing to enter primary and secondary schools in September. To prepare them, the English Language Support Unit, run by the Department of Education, has been organising a summer school for children, but despite daily language classes, only a handful of the 48 refugees now have enough English to communicate. This makes it particularly difficult for the older generation to adapt to life in Ireland.
"Many cannot find a job because of the language barrier, but they would probably find it difficult to apply themselves to nine to five jobs anyway because of all they've been through," says the local parish priest, Father Gary Doyle.
"I finished three years of an acting degree in Kosovo and would like to continue my studies in Ireland," Besnik said, "but if I can't study here I'll probably go home after a year or so."
He is critical of the Government scheme which offers £600 to each adult refugee returning to Kosovo. "I don't think people will go back if they're offering small money. They don't want to go back and live like a refugee again. They'll want to stay in Ireland and get work and send money home," he says.
Besim Koliqi (24), a driver and mechanic from Lupq in Kosovo, is also not certain when he should return. "If I went back home now, I must start from first again. My home is burnt out, so I must stay here and get work."
He faces a similar dilemma to many exiled Kosovars in that he has not been able to contact his family since the war broke out.
In Baltinglass, Besim and Besnik have found their home from home but, like the majority of Kosovars in Ireland, their long-term goal is to return to Kosovo. "My dream is not to stay too long here, because if we stay too long then we're not going back," Besim says.