Longford Periodontist tells incredible story of her escape from the Libyan Civil War

Dr Lobna Alghazal owns Keystone Periodontic in Longford town. Nestled on the Dublin Street, the clinic, painted green, is warm and welcoming.

The clinic has been around for 30 years and as of 2023 has been owned and run by Dr Alghazal.

Lobna has lived quite a life before arriving in little old Longford. She is originally from the city of Benghazi in Libya. In 2014 she arrived in Ireland having fled the Libyan Civil war.

“While finishing dental school, I got a scholarship and was planning to move to finish my postgrad, that was delayed due to the conflict and I didn’t know if I was going to be able to leave at the time.

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“We left in the middle of the bombing and everything,” Lobna said when recalling her escape from the war.

“I had gotten two scholarship acceptances in Sweden and Ireland, and then I decided to come here to Ireland because part of my family lived here, so I said that would be the best place to go.”

Lobna went to Trinity and finished her postgrad there. However, tragedy struck once again.

“During this time I had my younger brother who lived here. He had cancer, but I didn’t know, because we had moved in the middle of the war and everything, and the stress, you can imagine.

“It was too much because you kind of lost everything you know, I always say when you grieve your country it’s not the same as when you grieve anything else, you lose your possessions and the people you love.

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“Then when I moved here, unfortunately, I lost my brother as well, who I thought would be staying here with me.”

It is hard to imagine this kind of loss. This level of grief, for many, is inconceivable.

“I’m actually kind of lucky compared to other people you know, I said OK, fine, if I ended up here then maybe I could do something for myself.”

Lobna spoke of the daunting task of restarting in her thirties. She had built a life for herself throughout her twenties, and on top of losing her brother and her country she did not have the option of returning home.

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“I joined an activist group in Libya where we talked about democracy and secularism versus Islamic teaching for example.”

This put Lobna in a precarious position as she was very open about her beliefs that religion should be exempt from the constitution and that those of all religious backgrounds should be treated equally.

“This, in a country like Libya with all the political conflict can put your life in danger.”

Lobna stayed in Ireland and completed her Masters as well as further prestigious qualifications during her ten years here.

With International Women’s Day taking place this week, Lobna has some advice for young girls looking to forge their path in life.

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“There’s nothing guaranteed in life you know? Like you have to kind of take it day by day and you have to kind of make sure that whatever pain or whatever you go through, that you try to turn that into something like progress, that you always look forward.

“You always have to try to look at what is the deepest pain or the worst thing that happened in your life, look at it and say, you know what, that's not going to put me down.

“Women, they have more challenges in their lives, you know, in society, I thought it was only in the Middle East and North Africa, but coming here, there's a lot of challenges for women as well.

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“I think in society they put you in your own box. But you have to kind of jump and say, if I'm able to do it and I have the tools to do it and I have the confidence to do it, then you do it.”

The clinic is now one of the most successful in the area.