After the hell of Ukraine, refugee family thinks Birr is 'paradise'

I met the Vaihichev family in Birr Outdoor Education Centre last week and they told me about their experiences since February 24 last when a monstrous dictator unleashed hell into their lives and they were compelled to flee their home city of Kherson in eastern Ukraine.
Oleg, 28, has good English and spoke on behalf of his wife, Julia and father-in-law Victor, who have little English. Before February 24 he enjoyed a decent life in his hometown. He worked as a woodworker and Julia was an artist. His workshop was beside his grandmother's house. “My grandmother is 82. An Orthodox Christian she attends service three times a week. Her faith is so important to her during this hellish time. She refused to leave with us. She wanted to stay where she had always lived.”
Kherson is only a hundred kilometres from Crimea and the Russians were in the city within a few days of the invasion beginning. Kherson became a hostile place, a place of fear and danger. Oleg spoke about cars with tinted windows which you weren't sure were friend or foe and could start shooting you. He said the Russians introduced a regime which included arbitrary arrests, beatings, torture and murder. “They check your smartphones and if there is pro Ukrainian material they arrest you. If you have tattoos they arrest you. It's a criminal regime.” He said only 7% of the people in Kherson are pro-Russian; everyone else wants an independent Ukraine. Most people in the city are bilingual, speaking Ukrainian and Russian.
In early May the Vaihichevs decided to get out. “I closed my workshop,” said Oleg, “prepared our documents, settled some other matters.” Their journey from Kherson to Ireland took two weeks, by bus and plane, going via Odessa, Crimea, Tbilisi in Georgia, Bucharest in Romania and finally Dublin. The people in Georgia, who had similarly suffered terribly at the hands of the Russians, were very sympathetic towards them. “When we arrived in Georgia,” remarked Oleg, “it was like entering a new universe, a universe of freedom. You could breathe again.”
They have friends and cousins living in County Louth, therefore they decided to come to Ireland. The authorities in Ireland took them to Citywest Hotel in Dublin and after a few days they were sent to Birr OEC, on May 28, arriving with 35 other refugees. Birr OEC is a transitional spot. Its dormitories are divided into male and female and the refugees stay no more than a couple of weeks. Last week the Vaihichevs moved again, this time to the student campus in University of Limerick where they can live all together as one separate family unit, but their future is uncertain because the students start returning from mid-August and they will have to vacate the property.
Oleg wants to start working as a woodworker again. He brought his carving chisels with him from Kherson. Julia's artwork has many admirers and she has 30,000 Instagram followers. She and Victor both want to improve their English. They would all love to return to their homeland but for the moment they are trying to make the most of their current situation.
They all loved Birr. “The people were very friendly,” commented Oleg. “We loved walking downtown and meeting them. They were very helpful and understanding. We went for long bike rides in the countryside around Birr and visited the villages. The Offaly countryside looked so beautiful. It felt so peaceful. It felt like paradise.”