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Apologies fi you have read Keola Donaghy’s story already but I felt bad for him so I just had to post about his story to see if anyone could help him.

Keola was coming to Ireland with his family to do a PhD in University College Cork. Unfortunately immigration officials at Dublin airport didn’t let them enter the country and deported them despite Keola having satisfied all the documentation he had been asked to bring.

It is not like they were going to be a financial burden or overstay their welcome as Keola says:

To cover the financial side, we brought with us a bit over $4,000 Euro in cash, a bank statement showing a balance of over $10,000 US that we would be able to wire to an Irish bank upon arrival, and a bank statement showing a credit line of over $55,000 US available to us. We did this to be able to demonstrate that we had the financial resources to live in Ireland without being a burden to the state.

and:

I don’t need to be in Ireland for the sake of my job. I had many options when I began researching my options for doctoral research, both within the US and outside. My own college offers a Ph.d. in Indigenous Language and Cultural Revitalization - the only such degree in the world that I am aware of. As a faculty member, I could have pursued that degree at nearly no cost to myself. I was offered a spot in the Ph.d. program at Otago University in New Zealand, where the exchange rate is much more favorable to people from the US, but after searching my soul I knew I wanted to return to the land of my ancestors

If anyone has any advice for Keola, leave a comment here, or more directly email Keola at [email protected] or [email protected]

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