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. 

Céad míle fáilte for all children 

Millstreet Community School was, for example, the first school in Ireland to take in Kosovan refugee children after they arrived in Ireland in 1999.

Children among the Kosovar refugees from former Yugoslavia who were accommodated at Drishane Castle in Millstreet, Co Cork in 1999, and joined the local community school. Picture: Michael MacSweeney/Provision 

Around half of the 138 refugees aboard the first planeload of Kosovan refugees that arrived at Co Kerry's Farranfore Airport on May 11 that year were housed in Drishane Castle near Millstreet, Co Cork, which is now a direct provision centre. 

They were then bused to Millstreet Community School, which is next door to the Green Glens Arena, which is now an emergency accommodation centre.

Home to around 130 refugees, Green Glens is understood to have capacity for up to 350 refugees. Most of the current residents left Ukraine around April 19 and flew into Dublin Airport, where they were assigned places in the centre.

Since the 1990s, Millstreet Community School has taken in children from all over the world and it currently has children from 15 different countries.

Mr Ó Síodhcháin said: “We are well used to doing this because it goes back to 1999 when the Kosovans first came to Millstreet.

“As far as I know, we were the first school in Ireland that would have had any refugees at that time and then that has since evolved with direct provision.

“We take quite a lot of students from Drishane Castle and they all do very well.

“They arrive at any time of the year so, for us, it’s not unusual at all to be getting children at this time of the year. We’re also used to dealing with families that wouldn’t have English as their first language.

“I think everything we’ve done for everybody since 1999 kind of stands for itself and it’s well known actually for even the community themselves.”

The 13 or so Ukrainian students starting this week will have an informal induction before starting school on Thursday morning.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin meeting recent arrivals from Ukraine including Diana Ikonnikova and Iryna Brunova and their pet dogs when he visited the emergency accommodation centre at the Green Glens Arena in Millstreet on Sunday. Picture: Eamon Ward

“We’re arranging a kind of a tea and coffee meet and greet with the mothers on Thursday morning, just to introduce them to staff, and we have a couple of students around that day just to meet and to help them settle in,” Mr Ó Síodhcháin said.  “We had welcome packs for them yesterday.”

Local businesses have also chipped in, with Coleman’s Centra and Supervalu both donating drawing books, pens, copybooks, and other stationery for the children.

After the Taoiseach visited the Green Glens emergency accommodation centre on Sunday, he said he had been moved listening to the experiences of the refugees.

However, Micheál Martin said that while Ireland had been very helpful in its response to their plight, we can — and have to — do more for them.

He was asked if we can accommodate the 25,000 Ukrainian refugees already here and how far we are from having to put them up in tents.

He did not directly answer the question but pointed to the new Millstreet centre, describing it as an example of Ireland’s “innovative” approach to the refugee housing crisis.