Tullamore Palestinian flags now in refugee camp in Jordan

Palestinian flags which have flown over the Texas drapery shop in William Street, Tullamore, are now in a refugee camp in Jordan, in the grateful hands of the elderly parents of a Tullamore doctor.

Speaking to the Offaly Independent this week, Tom “Texas” McNamara spoke of the emotion he felt as he handed over the flags to Dr Qasem Qasem on Monday evening last.

“I put the flags up when this horrible thing started, to show solidarity with the Palestinian people,” Tom explained.

And then, two weeks ago, he got a message from Dr Qasem who works in Tullamore Regional Hospital.

“He said it was the highlight of his day and it lifted his heart to see the flags flying on his walk to work, and it heartened him that humanity had not given up on the Palestinian people,” Tom recounted.

The two men met. Dr Qasem was going to Jordan to visit his elderly parents who were forced to flee their home on the West Bank and now lived in a refugee camp in Jordan. Dr Qasem saw that Tom was closing his drapery store and asked if he could take the flags to Jordon.

“I said it would be an honour and a privilege and I was very touched and surprised.

It brought home to me that these people are human being, just like us, and one of them is working in the hospital, trying to save our lives,” Tom remarked.

Dr Qasem put the flags in his car and flew out with them on Monday evening.

He has since reported back that his parents felt very emotional when they got the flags.

“In a lot of countries, it is illegal to fly, buy or possess Palestinian flags,” Tom said. “The fact that they had flown high here, in support of the Palestinian people, heartened them,” he added.

When asked why he had Palestinian flags flying over his shop, Tom replied:

“If you have a heart and a conscience and any sense of morality at all, you have to realise these people are being systematically exterminated over the last 70 years”.

Tom feels that “the Irish have been seen to be on the right side of history”.

Dr Qasem has told him that the Palestinian people have a deep understanding of Irish history and of our struggle for so long, and they take courage from the fact that if Ireland can do it, they can too.

“They take succour and comfort and hope from the Irish struggle,” Tom stated.

Tom McNamara is a native of Portarlington.

In the early ‘80s, he and his wife Treasa opened a small drapery shop on William Street, Tullamore.

They went on to open a department store in Mullingar. Having retired a few years ago, Tom decided to get back into the retail business and reopened a ladieswear store in William Street “to keep myself occupied”.

However, Tom soon realised that the retail business had “changed utterly”.

“The whole landscape of retail, towns and shopkeepers has changed in the last 15 years,” he said.

He predicts that, in another 15 years, there will be no heart to any town.

“If they can subsidise other industries, they can subsidise rural life in small midlands towns,” he declared.

Tom and Dr Qasem had never met before.

“I had never met him before, but we met up for coffee and chatted for hours.

He is a nice, kind gentleman, a normal human being”, stated Tom who looks forward to meeting Dr Qasem again when he gets back later this month.