Sudanese doctor checks in with old Tuam friends after 30 years

THIRTY years after leaving Tuam as a newborn, an African doctor returned to the town last week to meet friends of her family who lived in the town in the late 1980s.

Saeedah Mohammadein Mahmoud, 30, was born here in 1987 when her father Ali Dinar brought his family from Sudan to study a PhD in animal science in what was then known as University College Galway.
The family lived on Vicar Street and Ali Dinar combined his studies with a research post at the Belclare Agricultural Institute. After his three year studies he brought his family home to Khartoum, but the memories of Tuam lingered.
During her visit to the town last week, Saeedah popped into The Tuam Herald office with a copy of a paper from 1987 where she and her family featured on the front page.
In 1987, The Tuam Herald’s now retired Sports Editor Jim Carney wrote of Ali Dinar, who studied in Galway and also worked as a researcher at the Belclare Institute, "studying important developments to help carry out vital work in an emerging Sudan".
Following the completion of his studies, he returned with his family to take up a post with the Sudanese government at the Ministry for Animal Resources in Khartoum.
Saeedah said she had grown up listening to stories of how wonderful Ireland was and said she was very excited to finally have the chance to visit Tuam.

Read the full feature in this week's edition of The Tuam Herald