Latvian community celebrate their national day
There are an estimated 30,000 Latvians living in Ireland and November 18 saw them celebrate Latvia’s national day. Drogheda, County Louth, has a significant Latvian community, members of which gathered at Holy Family community centre, last Saturday, to mark the occasion with music, dance, Latvian traditional food, costumes and a play involving some very talented young children.
Declan and team were there to film the celebrations as part of their BAI-funded multicultural community TV series “Home thoughts from abroad”, which is due to screen in 2023.
“It was a wonderful experience to be involved in the celebrations,” said Declan. “The Latvian culture is so rich and it’s vital that children from Latvian backgrounds can retain a strong sense of their culture along with the Irish culture that they will grow up with here. Also, like many of the communities who have come from overseas to put down roots in Ireland, the food tradition is a lot less processed and, therefore, a lot healthier for both people and planet. With the climate crisis impossible to ignore, we need to return to a time when we were more in tune with local, seasonal and natural food. I really feel that we can learn a lot from the minority communities who live among us.”