Welcome To My World features Cobh lady Sabine Menassa-Matta

The final episode in the current series of RTE’s popular travel programme Welcome To My World  follows the journey of Cobh lady Sabine Menassa-Matta to her native Lebanon with her friend Kim Thompson. Sabine moved to Ireland in 2004 and now lives in Cobh with her family. Kim’s husband is a work colleague of Sabine and her husband and through this the two couples became friends. However in 2008 Sabine was struck down with a rare but dramatic neurological disease called Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and spent several months inhospital. Kim and Sabine became close as Kim cared for the new baby during Sabine’s long recovery.

The introduction to the program was filmed in Cobh just before Christmas and was filmed in Lebanon in early January. Sabine introduced her Irish friend to the places where she grew up and to her family in South Lebanon where United Nations Irish Peacekeepers have served. Sabine carried a letter for the Mayor of Tibnine informing him and the Councillors about the Titanic Centenary Commemorations in Cobh in 2012. 154 Lebanese passengers boarded Titanic in Cherbourg in April 1912 and traveled to Cobh where 123 more passengers boarded the ill fated ship. Only 29 of the Lebanese were saved, their destiny entwined with that of the Irish of whom 79 were lost. Every April members of the Irish Lebanese Cultural Foundation with a base in Kilkenny play an integral part in Titanic Commemorations in Cobh. The programme will air on Friday 4th February at 8:30pm on RTE 1 and can also be viewed on RTE Player after the transmission.

Sabine, Kim and Captain Joe Mcdonagh in Tibnine – South Lebanon – Photo by Kim Thompson