Nepali New Year 2083 BS welcomed in Dublin

नेपाली लिङ्क मे ९, २०२६

Dublin, Ireland — The Nepali Naya Barsha, Bikram Sambat 2083 period sees new advances for Nepali-Irish peoples friendship and Nepal-Ireland deepened cultural links.

On a nationally important, first of its kind intercultural level, Nepali New Year was celebrated on the 15th April a Dublin/Irish community initiative from the famous historically important inner city district of The Liberties.

The venue for the event, the initiative of the Publican, Mr Tom Young, was the award winning ‘The Liberty Belle’ pub, Winner of Best Local Pub in Ireland 2024 that has had a substantial connection of some two years through local residents Alan Mercel-Sanca (whose name is most known of for a decade in the UK, where he was lead for the UK Nepal Friendship Society, [later known as the Himalayan and Nepal Arts and Culture Society] that was associated with such achievements as playing a central role in enabling the England C Team and Nepal National Football Team friendly international match in 2025, as well as resolute support for the Gurkha Hunger Strike of summer 2021, and much else) and Deepak Tamrakar (formerly Arts lead for the UKNFS).

The Liberty Belle initiative of Mr Young, that saw Naya Barsha 2083 recognised through the presence of Nepal’s national flag an related bunting in the ‘Artnur’s Corner’ (named in honour of the founder, Artthur Guinness 1, of the Guinness brewery dynasty; the world famous brewery is located in The Liberties) section of this famous pub, was in recognition of two particular contributions Alan (a director at and one of the founders of the Ireland Nepal Chamber of Commerce, and a published autthor on Nepal’s culture) and Deepak have made to the community, and for Ireland-Nepal cultural and UNESCO links.

In regard to the first, it was at the Liberty Belle in early 2025 that at a major tasting of Deepak’s family recipes-based vegetarian food was directly introduced to the district’s community. A year later, at the time of Naya Barsha 2083 the major long sought breakthrough for profiling Nepali food at national level was made with the news of national food retail store giant Lidl (over 240 stores across the island of Ireland) welcoming Alan & Deepak’s company — Dhaaranaa Ltd — to stock from the autumn, through Lidl’s Kickstart programme the Tamrakar family recipe Momo.

Nepali Momo at Kickstart event

The Liberty Belle event of the 15th April saw beyond the Nepalese cuisine examples provided by Deepak to his family’s family recipes, very wholesome and wonderful social interactions of Dublin, especially restaurants community Nepali community members, and members of The Liberties local for generations Irish community members. Attending on behalf of NRNA Ireland and the Ireland Nepal Chamber of Commerce, Mr Nabaraj Koirala (also of Kathmandu Kitchen and Divali restaurants group) and Mr Shiva Gautam and his wife Mrs Lina Gautam (a renowned Nepalese chef who is a regular guest chef on RTE’s Today Show) of Monty’s of Kathmandu, a number of whose team members also joined this unique celebration of the Nepali community’s contribution to Dublin and Ireland event.

Mr Koirala on behalf of NRNA Ireland presented the chief guests of honour Mr Noel Fleming, and Mr Derek Hayden representing Dublin City Local Enterprise Office (LEO) with Khata to mark this special occasion (below Mr Koirala, Mr Tom Young, and Mr Hayden).

Although because of developments on the day the Deputy Lord Mayor, Cllr John Stephens (Fianna Fail) could not in the event at the last minute attend due to developments with the central Dublin by-election where he is his party’s candidate. He sent through to Alan as a result, ‘his very best wishes and congratulations for the New Year 2083 event, which he regarded as a very welcome celebration of the special and deeply valued place of the Nepali community in the heart of the Dublin community.’

The event also saw profiling of Nepali copper and metalwork through the presence of a tama/copper tankard, and also a brass anti (below) with also Nepali crafts in the clothing and shoulder bag items being profiled to great acclaim by and interest in purchasing such items by the Irish community.

On a related cultural clothing attire note, Deepak Tamrakar, in presenting the food items also wore the Daura Surawal to great acclaim on this auspicious occasion.

The other special connection from The Liberties/Ireland to Nepal is a major UNESCO context one. Alan Mercel-Sanca is the coordinator for a The Liberties community senior figures, including Mr Young, and especially Mr Noel Fleming [a greatly respected father figure of the community], historians, film directors and multiple other stakeholders supported [including Lord Iveagh, Head of the Guinness family] initiative that commenced in early 2025, to have The Liberties listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site because of its tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Outstanding Universal Value. More can be read here.

A week after Nepali New Year 2083 was celebrated, The Liberties witnessed a second event of direct Nepal UNESCO level importance occurred in an official visit of the lead, Ms Kate Lapping, and her colleague learning and community engagement officer, Ms Sophie Hunter of New Lanark UNESCO World Heritage Site Scotland. This in response to some two months earlier The Liberties UNESCO WHS listing initiative team members Alan Mercel-Sanca, Mr Tom Young, and Mr Noel Fleming’s fact-finding visit to New Lanark.

The Liberties initiative from its very start received direct and invaluable guidance support from the UNESCO Nepal team. Now, a year on, as a result of the reciprocal visit a project is being developed for connecting up the weaving traditions of New Lanark and The Liberties, with that of Kathmandu. This proposed by the New Lanark team with strong support of The Liberties Weavers. A plan is being developed around this with Alan with Deepak assisting on the Kathmandu outreach and engagement dimension, very much involving UNESCO Nepal. On the occasion of the New Lanark team visiting The Liberties weaving community hub both officers where symbolically presented with a Nepali Khata scarf:

Bringing this and an aspect of the Nepali food being profiled in Ireland at the national level — a national food stores retailer being the only way this could at last be accomplished, and very much involving Northern Ireland too — it is very good to share that for profiling the Nepali food dishes were felt to require a major direct Nepali culture association. It was this in mind that the Dhaaranaa Ltd food products have chosen to profile Nepal’s famous cultural symbol of Dhaka — just as Tartan is for many Scottish products including food items and beyond. This decision came through the UNESCO initiative connection with New Lanark (please see below their WHS official ‘Tartan’ presented to Alan and The Liberties initiative team on the 27th April).

The concept of using Dhaka as the background to the food products dishes/packaging was reviewed and acclaimed in The Liberties by community members, and felt by Lidl to be a major and very exciting food and culture story, of original in concept and visually impactful kind.

Concluding, it is very good to share as well that also at this time of Naya Barsha 2083 in Dublin, that as a further outcome of the special role and connection of Nepal directly to The Liberties UNESCO WHS listing initiative, that the breadth of support for the initiative also includes major Arts figures of Dublin. This includes a famous Dublin-based film director. There will be more news on this in the months ahead, but there is real appetite for connecting the film industries of Kathmandu and Dublin. As this takes shape it will also have a valuable bilateral UNESCO dimension for both countries hold UNESCO Creative City of Film status.