‘We are broken inside’: How Cork communities are welcoming Ukraine's refugees

Six weeks after the first Ukrainian refugees arrived on Irish soil, communities around Cork have been galvanising to welcome them, writes Mary Cate Smith

Ukrainian Svetlana Solntseva and her children Maria and Andrii, were staying with a host family in Glanmire but have recently found temporary accommodation in the city centre. Svetlana hopes she can find a school for her children. Picture: Dan Linehan

During Covid-19, we saw wildflowers curiously sprout through cracks in the pavements of urban dwellings. An inkling of hope injecting much-needed life into the otherwise bleak landscape of the global pandemic, it signified a small scale re-wilding of our cities. These new, living, breathing things were pushing through in spite of the mass destruction caused by the virus.

While the circumstances were undeniably bleak, the healing process, on a natural level at least, had begun. It seemed that maybe, something good was coming from something very, very bad.