A TALENTED Syrian musician who recently became an Irish citizen celebrated in a very fitting way.
Zack Abasi is originally from Syria but has been living in Ireland for several years, and recently was made an official Irish citizen.
The musician celebrated in "an authentic way"-- by performing a mind-blowing cover of the famous guitar riff from Whiskey In The Jar.
First penned by Dublin rockers Thin Lizzy, fronted by the legendary Phil Lynott, Whiskey In The Jar has gone on to be one of the most revered rock songs in history, and has been covered by countless musicians including Bryan Adams, Metallica-- and now Zack Abasi.
Although he performed over the Metallica cover of the famous Thin Lizzy guitar riff, an Irish tricolour glowed in the background on a computer screen in the studio, and a now-viral Tweet of the video contained the hashtags #IrishCitizenship, #ProudIrish, #SyrianIrish and #ThinLizzy.
His friend, Razan Ibraheem, who works as a journalist in Dublin, shared the clip of Zack performing the powerful cover to Twitter, where she wrote:
"When my friend Zack Abasi from Syria got his Irish citizenship recently.. he decided to celebrate it in a different way.. or in an authentic way like Thin Lizzy Whisky in the Jar way."
When my friend Zack Abasi from Syria got his Irish citizenship recently.. he decided to celebrate it in a different way.. or in an authentic way like Thin Lizzy Whisky in the Jar way. @ZackAbasi#IrishCitizenship #IrishCitizen #ProudIrish #SyrianIrish #WhiskyInTheJar #ThinLizzy pic.twitter.com/5Xum6BhCxn
— Razan Ibraheem (رزان) (@RazanIRL) August 14, 2021
The performance garnered huge praise from Irish people online, with many congratulating Zack on his citizenship: Margaret E Ward wrote: "This is absolutely beautiful Zack! It's great to have you join us."
One person joked: "There should be two routes towards securing Irish citizenship a) fulfil the current criteria or b) skilfully perform Thin Lizzy Whisky in the Jar on electric guitar"!
The official Twitter account for Ireland's Department of Justice also offered their praise to the musician, writing in Irish: "An-mhaith!"- Very good!
To make things even more impressive, when asked what kind of guitar he was playing on, Zack revealed it was his own design, a custom-made guitar bearing his logo 'ZA'.
Following in the steps of Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott, Dubliner Zack Abasi is working hard to make it in the music industry and regularly uploads clips of original tracks and covers to his Youtube account, which you can find here.
You can also follow the musician on Twitter (here) and Spotify (here).
