Lebanese by birth, Irish by tongue
In a flawless Irish accent, Lebanese aid worker Khalel Haidar answers an interviewer: ”The Irish are fucking great! They've protected my family.” The three-year-old video that resurfaced on social media isn't the only case of Lebanese speaking with an Irish lilt.
Ali Saad from southern Lebanon grew up alongside Irish peacekeepers and also learnt English from them. The soldiers saved his life during an airstrike and attended his wedding to his wife Bassima years later. The couple now work as translators for the Irish peacekeepers.
Their Irish accents are a testimony to Ireland's long-standing UN peace operations in Lebanon since 1978. Today, 370 Irish soldiers are stationed there, out of 10,058 overall. 47 have died there between 1978 and 2022, just over half of Ireland’s Defence Forces overseas casualties. Read more about how Ireland balances its military neutrality with peacekeeping missions in our piece here.
People all around the globe are linguistically influenced by European countries, though often due to a colonial past or long periods of military occupation. The cases of Khalel and Ali Saad refreshingly show how cultural overlaps also arise organically through genuine connections in a humanitarian context.