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| Ndrek Gjini |
Ndrek Gjini, author, journalist, and teacher by profession, emigrated to Ireland in 2002. He tells in an interview for Albanian Diaspora about his journey and how he managed to get integrated into Irish society, as well as make the Irish turn their eyes to Albania and why not even visit it.
Gjin, tell me something about yourself, your family and how did you end up in Ireland?
It is not at all easy to talk about yourself. This is because man perceives himself differently and others perceive him differently. But anyway, I am telling my story, in my opinion.
"I have been writing and publishing poetry and journalism since the third year of high school. After graduating from the University of Shkodra in the field of Language and Literature, I worked for two years as a teacher and one year as a journalist in the local newspaper in Puka. In 1991 I moved to Tirana. Initially, I worked in the newspaper "Kombi", then in the Albanian Telegraphic Agency and in the newspaper "Rilindja Demokratike" (RD). In 1996, I started working as a spokesman for the Ministry of Interior. Then, I went back to the "RD" newspaper. During all these years, in addition to my daily work, I continued to write literature and published several books.
In 2002 my family emigrated to Ireland. I made the decision to leave after I was convinced that I was totally incapable of adapting to the "new norms" that had begun to take shape in the collective consciousness of Albanian society, where an idiot was called smart, a thief was called agile, a killer was called a hero, and a bandit became a minister.
In Ireland, it is not that I found paradise. I was lucky in terms of getting status as a political refugee, as I took advantage of it with the first interview. Initially life there was a real adventure. I did not know any English words. I had to learn the language and work to support my family. We lived in Castlebar, a fairly small town in the west of Ireland. There were no courses where you could go to learn the language. I started working as an assistant baker. After working for hours I sat down and learned English at home. My wife and son helped me a lot. I wanted to do the recognition and conversion of the university degree I had received in Albania. I was told it could not be done because Albania had not yet signed the Bologna agreement. In 2004 I enrolled at Castlebar College for Further Education to take a 1-year full-time course in written journalism. Meanwhile, in addition to work and school, I continued to write and publish in Castlebar's local newspaper, The Connaught Telegraph. I published over 40 articles there. In 2005 some of my poems were published in a prestigious anthology entitled "Present Tense". This anthology included well-known authors, one of whom was even a winner of the "Nobel Prize".
In 2005, we moved to Galway. There I enrolled in high school, at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology, in the full-time Bachelor program in Heritage Studies. I studied there for four years and graduated with a BA (Honors) in Heritage Studies. I then went on to pursue a Master of Arts in Writing program at the University of Ireland in Galway. I completed this too successfully. During all these years, I worked as a manager in a bar at the train station at night and went to school during the day.
From 2006 onwards I have also worked as a translator (freelance) with several different companies and I have written and published my own writings as well as some translations in the Irish and Albanian press. I feel lucky as some of my writings, poems, translations and interviews have been published in several prestigious Irish newspapers.
You have made Albania known in Ireland not only through poetry, right?
The exhibition opened on November 26, 2012. The official opening was made by the Deputy Mayor, Frank Fahy (who is currently the Mayor). The ceremony was also attended by the Deputy Speaker of the Irish Parliament, a minister, and several MPs. Many directors and municipal officials and other officials were present. There were also Albanians. I also organized the opening of this exhibition at the Ennis City Museum as well as at the Cork City Library.
A few months later I started working at the Galway City Board of Education, as program coordinator, for the Galway Write a Book Project. We trained teachers to encourage students to write literary creativity. In 2013, I organized and opened the same photo exhibition about Albania in the lobby of the Education Directorate of the city on the occasion of the 101st anniversary of Albania's Independence. This time we were lucky enough to have Ambassador Mal Berisha to officially open this exhibition, as well as some other Albanian diplomats. Since 2014, I have been licensed as a teacher and registered as such with the Teaching Council Ireland. I am also the editor of the literary magazine The Galway Review.
Has it been difficult to draw the attention of the Irish to Albania?
At the beginning of 2015, I proposed to the current mayor of Galway, Mr. Frank Fahy, that in the list of ten different places that the mayor has the right to visit during his term, to include Albania. He submitted my proposal to the Municipal Council and thankfully this proposal was approved. In October 2015, I was lucky enough to have Mr. Fahy choose me to accompany him on his visit to Albania.
Mr. Fahy in his report before the Municipal Council said that Albanians are the most generous and hospitable people he has met in life. He said he was surprised by the talent and creative energy of these people. Fahy compared Albania to Malta. I am also in the process of completing the translation of a book of poetry by the current President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, and I am working intensively on editing and publishing the annual anthologies of The Galway Review. I had the good fortune to introduce to the board of directors of this magazine some Albanian writers and fortunately, the writings of some of them have been approved and passed for publication, such as the poems of Visar Zhiti, a story by Lazër Stani, or the poems of some authors from Kosovo and Albania.
Your story gets more colorful in these times when the fate of the immigrant is the headline of today’s reality. What do you remember from the first days of your arrival in Ireland?
Rain, boredom, fatigue, and loneliness.
How would you describe this place? Something special that this place has?
In a book I hope to publish soon, I called Ireland "Green Island." The book is made in the form of a diary and is entitled "My Life in the Green Planet". Ireland has the raing the most special thing in my opinion, the greenery and the writers. The latter are truly geniuses. But they insult each other a lot as if they were Albanians.
How is your day? Can you describe it to us a little, please?
Quite an ordinary day I would say, like any citizen, parent or spouse Albanian, Irish, German or Chinese, who has chosen to have work as his God. Hasty mornings, work, stress, fatigue, joys and worries, bills to be paid, battles most lost, some even won. Days that are sometimes so similar to each other that they make you lose the meaning of life.
Fate is a companion to man. Do you think he has been by your side? Or does luck come when you work non-stop?
Fate? I think you were working hard for it, sometimes it can even come to you.
Can you share any moments that have impressed you the most during this time in Ireland?
Are too many. But I will mention one that has touched me a lot. It's an email I received three days after I was invited as a lecturer in the MA in Writing program, at Writer’s Seminar, at the University of Ireland, Galway.
A student of this course who was from America sends me an e-mail and tells me that that day her boyfriend was also sitting in the auditorium, who was not a student of that course but had come from America to visit her. She begged me if I could send her a poem I had read and analyzed that day in that lecture. The poem talks about how a father tells his son that he has forgiven him for not remembering the days when he took his first steps crying and laughing at the same time, holding on to his father's arm. This is because, as the poem said, even the father will not remember the moments when he would take his last steps crying and laughing at the same time, holding tightly behind his son's arm.
Have you met Albanians in Ireland?
Yes I met. But I want to say that I feel lucky to live in a city, probably the only one in Europe where if you tell them that you are Albanian, they will take good care of you. Albanians in this city are a success story. They own well-known shops and restaurants, work in education, culture, health, banks. They have a good name.
How Important Is It To Write About You? Where do you find inspiration?
Writing is a disease, which in some cases, in some individuals, becomes incurable. This 'disease' in me has aggravated and is almost in the stage of being incurable. As for inspiration, I say I do not know where I get it. It is something magical, inexplicable, and surprising. If I knew where to find inspiration I would find it and stay there with it all the time, and as a mad lover, I would keep it tight behind me.