Cork school is preparing to welcome children fleeing war — just as it did 23 years ago

Millstreet Community School is ready to welcome children from Ukraine, having integrated pupils from Kosovo in a similar plight two decades ago 

Pól Ó Síodhcháin, principal of Millstreet Community School, the first school in Ireland to integrate children fleeing Kosovo in 1999. File picture: Eddie O'Hare

Taking in children from a war zone might be a daunting prospect for most school principals. But not Pól Ó Síodhcháin, who will welcome 13 Ukrainian children this week.

This is because the school he runs has been taking in children from war zones for decades.