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From Mongolia to Dublin: ‘Coming to Ireland was a blessing. It was a great move for my life, I have no regrets’ www.irishtimes.com
Gonchigkhand Byambaa moved from Mongolia to Dublin in December 2017 after meeting her husband in her home country.
“We met in Mongolia. That time I was learning English and he was learning Mongolian. So we met through our friend and we stayed in Mongolia for three years, then I came to Ireland with him. It was actually a blessing. It was a great move for my life, I have no regrets.”
The couple now have two children, one girl (13) starting secondary school and a boy who is in junior infants in a Gaelscoil.
Shortly after making the move to Ireland, Byambaa lost her mother and father.
“I just landed and got a huge shock, a culture shock and I had to deal with my enormous losses in a different language and different culture,” she says.
“That’s why I started my activism here in Ireland, it was a way of coping.
“I realised that Mongolians did not integrate at all, they didn’t know what services were available, what their rights are. I started e-mailing NGOs [non-governmental organisations] that were working for migrants, just explaining that I’m Mongolian, I want to translate your news into Mongolian language and if possible I want to liaise the people to your services.”
The Immigrant Council of Ireland took her up on the offer. “I was one of the initiators of their We Are Here Too movement,” Byambaa says. “That campaign was highlighting migrant women who are facing domestic abuse in Ireland, raising awareness of the services that are available for migrant women and that there was more awareness needed from the State.”
Coming from a nomadic background herself, Byambaa says she was shocked by the treatment of Travellers in Ireland. She recalls learning about their shared culture. “We are quite amazingly connected by a nomadism. That’s how I really started to learn about Irish culture,” she says.
Struck by the contents of a documentary featuring Senator Eileen Flynn, the first Traveller woman in the Oireachtas, Byambaa decided to work with the Southside Travellers Action Group.
“I watched a documentary. Senator Eileen Flynn, she was talking about how the Irish Travellers are being treated. That hit me very hard. I couldn’t believe that the Irish government could discriminate [against] their own indigenous people that harshly because [the] Irish government put up a very nice image in the international community that they’re defenders of human rights,” Byambaa says.
Having studied social science as an undergraduate in Mongolia, Byambaa has fully immersed herself in community activism since moving to Ireland. She is currently working towards gaining a master’s in community and youth work at Maynooth University.
As the festival ambassador for Dublin Lunar New Year 2025, Byambaa has been busy preparing in advance of January 25th, when the celebrations kick off.
“We have many different events, including stand up comedy, film screenings, live performance and cooking and other workshops. As the Asian community, it’s a great opportunity to learn from each other,” she says.
The festival will culminate in a flagship event at Meeting House Square on February 2nd, with dance performances, street food markets and the opportunity to play some traditional Lunar New Year games.
I had no expectations of Ireland because the first I learned that Ireland existed [was] from my boyfriend
“In Mongolia, this year is going to be the year of the snake,” says Byambaa, “Snake represents kindness, beauty, and most importantly prosperity for everyone.
“We are basically asking for forgiveness and kindness from mother nature for the coming months. For the nomadic people, we are welcoming baby animals ... We take time to appreciate what we have … it’s the most sacred time and everyone celebrates it.”
Despite coming to Ireland with “no expectations”, Byambaa says she has been taken aback by “the friendliness and warmth of Irish people”.
“Here is really friendly. The friendliness and the warmth of Irish people is different. The friendliness is a huge contrast from my culture. We are quite a neutral-faced people, we don’t really express our emotion. So in Ireland, people smile a lot and say hello to each other, it’s these kind of small things that many people have taken for granted. It’s actually really nice for migrants like me,” she says.
“I had no expectations of Ireland because the first I learned that Ireland existed [was] from my boyfriend, now my husband. He [told me] that there was a country called Ireland, it’s a beautiful country,” she says. “So I healed my broken heart with the Irish beautiful, magical forest. I walked a lot and I met Irish people.”
Although challenging, Byambaa says she found living through the Covid lockdowns in Ireland to be a largely positive experience compared to that of her friends and family in Mongolia. “My experience being locked down in Dublin, and my sister’s experience in lockdown in Mongolia was like a completely different world,” she says.
“The government did not fearmonger too much, like in Mongolia … It wasn’t like there was a military helicopter following everyone. In Mongolia, it was totally locked down. There was no walking space anyway because the city is not planned well, so people went crazy and outside the apartments in Mongolia there was police officers and military tanks.”
Another “cultural shock” for Byambaa was “the greenness all the time” in Ireland, “because Mongolia has four really different seasons”. “I couldn’t believe that it was green all the time,” she says.
Byambaa says she has already visited every county in Ireland, with the exception of Donegal. “When we got engaged here in Ireland, our honeymoon was to travel the counties by train,” she says.
“It’s a very small country, and each county has their own unique beauty.”
Published Date:2025-01-21
