Leitrim hurler Zak Moradi is over the moon after helping his adopted county to Lory Meaghar cup glory - 17 years after arriving in Ireland as a refugee.
A Kurdish-Iranian refugee born in Iraq, living in Tallaght and playing for Leitrim - Moradi moved to Ireland when he was 11 after his family fled from Sadam Hussain's Iraqi regime.
Moradi soon took up GAA when his family arrived in Carrick-on-Shannon in 2002 and has since forged a successful hurling career.
He came on as a substitute deep into the second-half in their Lory Meagher Cup final on Saturday evening, and nailed a point to help steer the cup in the Wild Rose county's direction in extra time in a 2-23 to 2-22 triumph over Lancashire at HQ.
"I feel great," Moradi beamed on RTE Radio One's Morning Ireland today.
"The last two days have been amazing, great sessions with friends and family. It's the first time ever that we won a cup with Leitrim.
"We don't win that much in Leitrim so it's a great feeling. I've been playing with the same lads the last eight or nine years, so we just kept at it the last couple of years."
But arriving in Ireland, he didn't even know the language and was taken aback by the differences between his home country and his new adopted home.
He said: "No, I didn't have a word of English.
"It (moving to Carrick-on-Shannon) was exciting because when you're in Iraq, it was a difficult place to grow up because it was a dictatorship - at that time it was Sadam Hussain in charge of the country.
"When you came over to Ireland it was a democracy, you could see everybody was happy - everything was different.
"Even when I left Iraq - it was 45 degrees - and you come over here in June time and it was lashing rain."
The GAA soon became a large part of his life, with Clement Cunniffe introducing him to hurling soon after he and his family arrived in the county - the pair both played in yesterday's win.
Moradi added: "It probably helped me to make friends easier. We started (playing) in primary school and secondary school .
"All the mentors in Leitrim were very helpful because they were the ones that used to collect us for training and bring us home, it was brilliant.
"It's like a family thing, everybody knows eachother. Especially if you're down in Leitrim, everybody knows eachother."
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