Tullamore doctor's Palestinian parents will receive flags flown by Offaly retailer

TULLAMORE retailer Tom 'Texas' McNamara has presented the Palestinian flags which flew above his store to a local hospital doctor whose parents grew up in the West Bank.

Dr Qasem Qasem, a general medical doctor at the Midlands Regional Hospital Tullamore received the flags from Mr McNamara just hours before flying out to Jordan to visit his mother and father.

Dr Qasem told the Tullamore Tribune how he felt when he saw the flags above the Texas store on William Street in the town.

“It was uplifting. I told Tom I'd never been to the shop but going and coming from the hospital it was the highlight of my journey,” said the 47-year-old father of three.

“It's pure human solidarity. It's really touching when you see it. So it would uplift me, especially with the bad news coming every day with what's happening. A simple act like that definitely makes me feel that there is some support and there is hope.”

Dr Qasem was born and grew up in Kuwait following his parents' move there from the West Bank but when he was 18 he came to Dublin to study medicine in UCD.

Though he had completed his second level education in Kuwait he could not study there and after attaining the Leaving Certificate in Dublin he qualified as a doctor in Ireland.

He later worked in New Zealand and Jordan but was also employed in the emergency department in Tullamore Hospital in 2009 before returning in April of this year.

Since the October 7 2023 attack by Hamas which prompted the latest phase of the conflict he has been watching events with horror.

“I have lots of family in the West Bank and I have friends in Gaza. One of [my friends] was doing the Leaving Cert with me in Ireland and he became a doctor and was working in Gaza but left in early January,” he said.

“I condemn all the violence. October 7^th is part of a problem before and after. It's definitely a situation that the violence is, from my perspective, worse from the Israeli side. I would like that, basically, peace and justice would prevail and people can manage to solve their differences and their problems in a civilised manner.”

He hopes the Irish peace process could be inspirational. “We could learn in our region from Ireland and South Africa, trying to find a solution and a way that we can live together. It's a small piece of land but if people can bring themselves to a certain understanding everybody could manage to live there in a good way.”

He said he is honoured to receive the flags from Mr McNamara and will be delighted to give them to his father and let the Palestinian people know that such gestures of support are being made in Ireland.

“You feel that humanity has given up on Gaza but you still feel these kinds of small gestures that makes you hold on to the fact that there are humans who will try whatever they can to make their point.”

In recent years he has been able to travel around the West Bank and Israel with his Irish passport and prior to the current Gaza war he brought his parents to their homeplace.

“Even though they were born and grew up in the West Bank they could not go until they got American passports,” he explained.

Though his father (83) now lives in Jordan less than 80km from his native village it would be almost impossible for him to be buried in the same plot as his own father.

“It's a very unfortunate situation that politics play a lot in simple things for ordinary people,” said Dr Qasem.

“It's a big mess and the ordinary people are suffering... We are looking forward to some kind of end to this for all the people who feel it. A solution must be found. Some level-headed people in the world need to come together and find a solution.”

After receiving the flags Dr Qasem presented Tom McNamara with a Palestinian scarf and a watermelon badge (pictured below). A depiction of a watermelon slice in the colours red, green, black and white is widely used as a symbol of support for Palestine.

Mr McNamara, one of the best known names in Midlands retailing for more than 25 years, is currently closing his drapery store on William Street.

He decided to buy the Palestinian flags and fly them above his shopfront as a personal message of support for the plight of the people affected by the war.

“Any person who considers themselves human and with a heart has to feel nothing but sorrow and empathy with those poor people that are being basically mowed down, killed like flies. They're being exterminated, it's systematic extermination, there's no other word for it,” said Mr McNamara.

“I've a very deep interest in all that's going on out there and I find it harrowing and I think most people do but a lot of people decide to say nothing.”

He had never met Dr Qasem and was not aware the impact seeing the flags had on the hospital doctor.

“He came into the shop twice looking for me and I wasn't there. The girls gave him the number and next thing I got this Whatsapp [message] from him. He sent me a long emotional Whatsapp about how it used to lift his heart when he went to work every morning.”

They subsequently met and during a 90-minute conversation Dr Qasem spoke about some of the “horrors” happening in his homeland.

“He said since I'm closing down could he have the flags because he wanted to bring them home to his father. I said of course you can, absolutely.”