“Is é Dia is fearr. Is é Dia is fearr (God is great. God is great),” began Shayk Umar al-Qadri at the Eid al-Adha 2026 prayer and celebrations in Croke Park on Wednesday morning.
Before him, sitting on the vast pitch, were upward of 500 Muslim men, women and children, each arrayed in finery as splendid as the morning itself, and all under the benign screen at the Hill 16 end which proclaimed “Welcome to Croke Park”.
Guests attending included former taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Msgr Eoin Thynne, representing the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell.
Shaykh al-Qadri, chair of the Irish Muslim Peace and Integration Council and Chief Imam at the Islamic Centre of Ireland, based in West Dublin, told everyone it was the seventh Eid celebrations in Croke Park and almost did not happen because of “protests from a very tiny minority”.
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However, such was the reaction to those protests from an “overwhelming majority” of Irish people, allied to “continued support” of the GAA and “kindness from local residents”, that he and others realised “we cannot allow hatred to win”.
Eid al-Adha is one to the two main annual Muslim feasts. Gatherings like the one in Croke Park showed that “people of different backgrounds can share space with dignity and peace” and were a reminder “that the vast majority of people, regardless of religion or background, simply want to live good lives, raise their families, and treat one another with respect”.
It was why “this Eid in Croke Park is important. Not only for Muslims. But for Ireland itself”, al-Qadri said.
He advised young Muslims to “learn about this country. Learn its history. Learn some Irish phrases” because “language opens hearts. Respect opens doors”. He encouraged them to “engage with the GAA and local initiatives, volunteer, participate, build friendships”.
Concluding, he said, “Let this Eid gathering continue to stand as a message from Ireland to the world.”
Ahern was greeted with warm applause as he rose to speak, reminding all that Croke Park was “an ait stairuil” in Ireland. He had had “so many opportunities over the years of visiting your centres and your people” and it was “a great honour to be here with you again today”.
Eid was “a hugely important day in mosques all over Ireland in 50 locations”, he said, and reminded attendees how this “huge gathering here is very near to my own home in this end of Dublin”. He wished all “Eid Mubarak, [A blessed Eid]” and “a really happy and pleasant day. Go raibh mile, mile maith agaibh”.
Thynne brought “the warmest of greetings and good wishes from our own Christian community ... We come from the same spiritual heritage. We are children of Abraham. We both profess faith in the one God”.
He noted how “in the Koran, Mary is spoken of with such love and reverence, more often than in our own scriptures”. He said, “In her we share a very special bond.”
Across Ireland he had seen how Muslims had “contributed so much to our society, working in our hospitals, serving the common good, raising wonderful families and building places of worship that enrich the landscape of our towns and cities”.
Earlier Thynne, who had served as chaplain to the Defence Forces, including in South Lebanon, remembered “many, many happy days there. I am thinking of those men who were deployed this morning”.
Speaking to The Irish Times, he recalled the “wonderful relationship” between the Defence Forces and people in south Lebanon, “mainly Muslims and the people generally, built up over the years and which has continued right to this very day”.
