‘I had a pint of Guinness to celebrate’: Former Leitrim hurler Zak Moradi welcomes fall of Iranian Leader

A former Leitrim hurler who was born in a refugee camp during the Gulf War says he celebrated with a pint of Guinness when he heard that Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed this week.

Zak Moradi, who spent his early childhood living under dictatorship in the Middle East before settling in Carrick-on-Shannon as a young boy, said many ordinary people in Iran and Kurdistan have long hoped to see the end of the regime.

He said the Iranian regime rules largely through fear. “If you speak up against the government they will accuse you of being an Israeli spy,” he said. “You can’t say anything to them. They’ll execute people straight away.”

“I was delighted when they killed him,” he said candidly. “He had so much blood on his hands. I actually celebrated — I had a pint of Guinness when I heard he got killed.”

Speaking this week, Moradi said many people across Iran and Kurdistan believe the removal of the current regime is the only path toward freedom. “90 per cent of Iranian people and Kurdish people from all different ethnicities want this government gone,” he said.

“They have killed hundreds of thousands of their own people for the last 46 years. People want change. People are looking for freedom.” He said the regime has long suppressed ethnic minorities and religious groups across the country.

“There are 36 different ethnicities and religions in Iran,” he explained. “You have Kurds, Persians, Arabs, Azerbaijanis, Iranian Jews, Zoroastrians, Yazidis — all sorts of people — and they are all being oppressed.”

Moradi said several members of his own extended family have been forced to live in exile for decades. “We have five cousins and relations that have been in exile for 46 years,” he said. “They are waiting for a day like this so they can go back.”

Others, he said, were forced to flee after taking part in protests against the government. “I have two cousins who had to flee because they joined protests,” he said. “They had everything — but they had no freedom.”

Moradi also criticised what he sees as a lack of understanding among people in Western countries about life under authoritarian regimes. “Sometimes people here don’t understand what it’s like because they never lived under dictatorship,” he said.

“You hear people saying Saddam Hussein or Gaddafi were great leaders because people got free electricity. “Nobody cares about free electricity. People want freedom.”

Moradi said he last visited Kurdistan in Iran in 2015 and described it as a deeply controlled police state. “When I visited there they knew everything about my family,” he said.

“They nearly knew what I had for breakfast. It’s a real police state. Everyone is watching over their shoulder.”

Despite the violence currently unfolding in the region, Moradi said many people believe the situation could eventually lead to greater freedom. “My mother doesn’t like war,” he said. “But she says it’s time for our people to be free — the Kurdish people and the Persians as well.”

He also warned that if international pressure were to suddenly disappear, the consequences could be severe. “If the pressure stops tomorrow, they will butcher people,” he said. “Anyone who spoke up would be executed.”

Now living in Dublin but still closely connected to Leitrim — where he first learned English and hurling — Moradi said Ireland’s democratic freedoms should never be taken for granted.

“People in Ireland don’t realise how lucky they are,” he said. “We’re spoiled here with democracy and freedom. People need to respect that because not every country has it.”

Moradi was born in a refugee camp in Ramadi, Iraq, at the height of the Gulf War. He spent his formative years growing up under the rule of Saddam Hussein before his family eventually settled in Ireland.

Moradi represented Leitrim in hurling and in recent years has become known as a motivational speaker and author. His memoir Life Begins in Leitrim, published in 2022, recounts his early life fleeing conflict and the opportunity he found after arriving in Ireland.

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