Ukrainian refugees welcomed to Donegal

Yesterday afternoon was a hive of activity in Bundoran as the popular resort threw open its doors to a so-far estimated 150 Ukrainian refugees, who have fled the Russian invasion of their home country.

As I arrive at the Viscount Lodge, where about 70 Ukrainians have spent their first night in Donegal, there is an air of busy calmness. More are expected by evening and will be given accommodation and shelter locally. 

The refugees are busy talking and scrolling on their new Irish phones, others sorting through bags of locally donated clothes, while a few are in the restaurant area, getting a bite to eat. 

Fruit, pizza and sandwiches are on the plate of one family I speak with. The kids cling close to the adults. 

Another group has congregated and listen intently to a translation in their native language. A few are still wearing masks by choice, but most are not. 

Local HSE health workers are also discreetly making their way around the families with forms in hand. 

Makeshift basement accommodation

13-year-old Illia from Kyiv says he feels like it is an adventure and he appears to be taking it in his stride. He is with his father Artemiu Baranovsky and grandmother Valintyna. 

His Dad had been working this past three years in Krakow, Poland, but is a native of west Kyiv. It is approximately 3,240kms from there to Bundoran.

It took Artemiu four days to persuade his father to leave Kyiv with his mother and head towards the border. He had to convince him that the conflict would not be over in a few days.

His parents huddled each night in makeshift accommodation in the basement of their Kyiv flat, which offered some protection from the daily bombing. 

Some of his other family made it to Poland and are now hoping to make it to Ireland as well.

Valintyna, who worked in childcare said there was little sleep in Kyiv and lots and lots of tears, which start flowing again, as she makes a hand gesture of how she had felt.

She proudly shows a picture of another son, his wife and grandchildren born in Ukraine just four days before the invasion started. 

Artemiu, Illia and Valintyna Baranovsky gathering their thoughts in Bundoran yesterday

Photo: Michael McHugh

Airport close to home bombed

Anastasia (10) only daughter of Andrey and Nadia Semenishin admits that she has been afraid, but feels a little better now that she is in Bundoran. 

They had been living in Ivano-Frankivsk, a city of 230,000 before the war came, about a five hours drive from the Polish border. 

Their local airport, which they had lived close beside, was hit by a barrage of missiles and totally incapacitated. 

Andrey gesticulates to give an idea of what it felt like to actually see live missiles landing near the family home. 

He also speaks quietly and slowly, apologising for his fluency in English. Parents and grandparents are still there, he adds. 

Wife Nadia barely blinks or flickers a centimetre as she listens intently to the conversation we are having. 

It is an intensity that can only be borne out of trauma and conflict.

Andrey and Nadia Semenishin, with daughter Anastasia from Ivano-Frankivsk who are now in Bundoran

Photo: Michael McHugh

Left Kyiv after the shelling started 

21-year-old Katrin Chernyshova speaks about her tears that did not disappear until she got to Dusseldorf in Germany. 

Her patriotic thoughts go back to those left behind, including her father, who is in the military.

She said she had escaped from Kyiv on the first days of the conflict with husband Toheeb Illelaboye, but had also stayed with family in Korsun, before making the arduous journey west. 

She recounts every detail of her journey in rapidity, in fear that she might forget some part, for her long journey to Ireland began on the first day of the war.     

She is dignified, determined but also speaks of the stress of having her young life, being changed so rapidly in such a short space of time.

Katrin Chernyshova speaks of her journey from Ukraine to Ireland Photo: Michael McHugh

The bright afternoon sees a few small groups heading down the town for a walk on a pleasantly sun drenched Bundoran.

Everyone has their own story of struggle over the past month. As I leave some are at the Promenade glancing out at the Atlantic waves.  

There are grandmothers with children, shepherding loved ones across the road.  

There is no laughter or smiles. 

They huddle in groups and whisper rather than talk. 

Some of the new Donegal based Ukrainian refugees sorting through some locally donated clothes yesterday Photo: Michael McHugh

The feelings of relief are quickly dissipated, they tell me, as thoughts go back to loved ones in Ukraine.

There are long gaps in conversation, often accompanied by glazed but not teary eyes. Most have shed so many that, for now at least,  they are dry.

The man who has offered the accommodation, businessman Conor McEniff wants any story to reflect on the refugees and their journey. 

Ukrainian refugees welcomed to Bundoran Photo Thomas Gallagher

I catch him in the kitchen making sandwiches with Mary Ferguson and out he goes with another big plateful, before another question can be asked.  

And as the refugees who continue to slowly gather their thoughts, some interest is peaked, when they hear and see the school kids from St Macartan’s National School out in the schoolyard across the road, holding a special ceilí and celebration in advance of St Patrick’s Day.  

They are pleased to know that the schools are so near and I pass on the bit of knowledge that I know, in terms of what the government has planned.

Cllr Michael McMahon meeting some of the earlier arrivals on Tuesday night

Photo Thomas Gallagher

The days ahead will offer some respite to these Ukrainian refugees, who have come to Donegal, but their heads and minds will be firmly turned east as they ponder on family, friends and relatives, in what is the greatest calamity to hit Europe, since World War Two.

The thoughts of Donegal people, both at home and abroad, are firmly with them, on this St Patrick’s Day 2022.