Irish Examiner view: Unwavering Irish support for Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has received an open-arms welcome in most other parts of the world and particularly so across Europe

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy greets Taoiseach Micheál Martin ahead of a joint press conference at the Ukrainian Government Building in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2022. Mr Zelenskyy will address both houses of the Oireachtas during his visit to Ireland on Tuesday.

Ireland has been unequivocal in its support for Ukraine and its people since February 24, 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale — and illegal — invasion of the country and started the biggest conflict on mainland Europe since the Second World War.

Our small nation has offered political and non-military backing for the beleaguered country since Vladimir Putin declared his "historical right" to large tracts of Ukraine and we have also granted temporary refugee status to some 120,000 of its civilians fleeing the conflict.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address both houses of the Oireachtas during his visit today amid increasingly fevered efforts to come to a negotiated peace deal between the warring parties and it is safe to assume the welcome he will get will be a lot warmer than he received during some of his visits to Donald Trump’s America.

Having been publicly humiliated by the “where’s your gratitude” jibes from Trump’s second-in-command, JD Vance, during one visit to Washington, Zelenskyy has nevertheless received an open-arms welcome in most other parts of the world and particularly so across Europe.

It will be more of the same in Dublin when he will be embraced warmly by the Government and by our newly inaugurated President, Catherine Connolly.

As his country cowers under unrelenting Russian missile and drone attacks which are killing his civilians daily, and freezes as Putin’s military targets Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Zelenskyy is engaged in a busy round of diplomatic stop-overs, including a visit to the Élysée Palace in Paris yesterday.

The Ukrainian president is striving to fight back against maximalist demands being made by Putin in the latest peace efforts being promoted by Washington. He is not being helped by Trump’s inexplicable bias towards Russia when it comes to settlement terms.

Zelenskyy is battling against extreme forces over which he has no control in order to preserve Ukraine’s nationhood.

Ireland plays a small but essential part in that battle, something for which Zelenskyy will undoubtedly express gratitude.

As he does so, Trump emissaries Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff will be in Moscow for further talks with Putin.

Although it seems that the latest US attempts to finalise a peace deal are unlikely to be successful in the face of Russian obduracy, this week could still be a pivotal one in diplomatic terms.

His visit to Ireland, along with his wife Olena Zelenska, will shore up continued support here as the EU ponders the implications of every and any outcome.

Timely warning on e-scooters

The report from the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland which found e-scooters are the leading cause of traumatic brain injuries to children should make all of us sit up and take notice.

What’s clear from the report is that the laws and restrictions as they exist are not robust enough; they are not being properly enforced and parents and guardians are either not aware, or turning a blind eye in allowing their children ride these very dangerous scooters on public roads.

Sure, there are existing regulations governing their use, but if you were to stand at any junction in any of our towns or cities for even the briefest of moments, you will witness e-scooter and e-bike riders paying not one whit of notice to the rules of the road.

The unfortunate corollary to this is that — as was reported in yesterday’s Irish Examiner — people, especially young people, are getting injured, maimed, and killed in e-scooter and e-bike accidents on an regular basis.

With the average stay in hospital being 18.7 days — similar to the time spent there after being hit by a car and five times the length of recovery time after falling from a bike — the implications are clear.

So is the necessary call to actions as outlined by the report’s author, consultant paediatrician and fellow of the RCPI’s faculty of paediatrics Irwin Gill.

“What we’re calling for is for parents to be aware that it is illegal for children under 16 to use any scooter on a public road,” Dr Gill writes. 

“We’re calling for enforcement of the existing rules as they are, which seems to be that they exist in principle, but they’re not keeping children safe and safe in practice.

“We’re also calling on Government to consider whether or not the rules we currently have are sufficient and need to be reconsidered.”

Austrian nuns hit the headlines

The strange case of nuns being accused of criminality in Austria, having broken back into a closed convent after being sent to a care home they deemed unsuitable, appears to have been settled in their favour.

While Hollywood has had its Nuns on the Run moments, in reality there have been very few instances where rebellious sisters have forced their — male — spiritual superiors into an embarrassing climbdown.

The three octogenarian nuns — Sisters Bernadette, 88, Regina, 86, and Rita, 82 — gained a global social media following after breaking out of their care home and back into their abandoned convent near Salzburg.

They have also been supported by local people and former pupils in the face of accusations by their religious superior of breaking their vows of obedience — something which the nuns have strongly denied.

A proposed solution to the impasse has been put to the nuns and is awaiting their approval, with one of the main conditions being that they cease all social media activity.

Such a concession would be a minor one for the nuns in what has otherwise been a huge win for them — morally and physically.

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