'The sea was a lifeline': renowned Gaza photojournalist moves Ballina crowd

More than a hundred people filled Kennedy Glasgow House in Ballina last week to hear Eman Mohammed, Gaza’s pioneering photojournalist and Senior TED Fellow, speak at Spoonfed, a Ballina Fringe Festival event hosted by the Mayo branch of the Ireland–Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC).

At just nineteen, Mohammed became Gaza’s first woman field photojournalist, beginning her career under siege and bombardment. Her images - intimate, unsparing and deeply human - have appeared in The Guardian, Le Monde, The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN. Her TED Talk on photographing women in Gaza has been viewed millions of times, establishing her as one of the most widely recognised Palestinian visual journalists of her generation.

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Speaking in Ballina, she reflected on a life spent documenting her community from within. “We are your eyes when it goes dark,” she said, describing how journalists work through blackouts and airstrikes. For her, the act of witnessing is both survival and resistance.

Projecting some of her favourite shots, she lingered on images of Gaza’s shoreline. “The sea was a lifeline,” she said, recalling families who returned to the beach after bombings as a quiet act of defiance. “People were defiant. They didn’t forget the blood, but they still went back. We belong to this.”

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Language and accountability were central to her talk. “It’s a lot of words to not say genocide,” she said, criticising how global media soften responsibility. She described the blockade’s cruelty through small, ordinary details: crayons, insulin, wedding dresses and footballs once classed as “security threats.” “It was dehumanisation as a system,” she said.

As one of Gaza’s first female photojournalists, Mohammed said her gender gave her rare access to private spaces. “I could hear women’s stories, not just the headline,” she told the audience. She recounted photographing a teenage surfer who finally received a wetsuit and board after months of military clearance, and children who built handmade kites to set a world record. “The occupation and killing are one percent of our stories,” she said. “The rest is how we live, dance and celebrate.”

She also drew parallels between Ireland and Palestine. “If you can name your genocide, you can name ours,” she said, reflecting on Ireland’s famine and how historical suffering is often sanitised by language.

Panelists Tony Groves, co-founder of tortoiseshack.ie, and Audrey Kissane, journalist and media reform advocate, joined Mohammed to discuss how newsrooms handle conflict. Groves spoke on verification and bias, while Kissane called for stronger editorial independence and for amplifying those most affected by war.

The evening closed with a raw moment from the floor. One audience member, in tears, said Mohammed’s point about Palestinians “not having to be perfect to deserve human rights” resonated deeply. She spoke of how oppressed people are often expected to be faultless before their suffering is believed. Her words drew long applause and ended the night in a true sense of solidarity and renewed energy.

Organisers described the event as an effort to “cut through polished narratives” and to centre voices usually excluded from coverage. After the talk, attendees lingered to discuss the importance of media literacy in the modern world.

In her final words, Mohammed reminded the room that Palestinians are not symbols but people. “We’re just human,” she said. “Not perfect, not saints. In this cold, dark world, we won the love because we only gave love.”