Ukrainians living in Ireland are celebrating Christmas, with a special Mass taking place in a church in north Dublin on Saturday evening.
January 6th is Christmas Eve for worshippers of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which follows the Julian calendar while Christmas Day falls on January 7th.
Fr Vasyl Kornitsky, who has been living in Ireland for the past 10 years, is expected to lead the service at Our Lady of Consolation church in Donnycarney at noon on Saturday.
Among those due to attend are Serhiy Shalapay, his wife Maria and their two sons, who have been living in Ireland for the past 20 years. Mr Shalapay’s niece Solomiya (22) fled Ukraine in March and is now staying with them at their home in Donabate, north Co Dublin, as well as Mr Shalapay’s father, Petro (71).
“It will be a quiet Christmas for us, with family,” Mr Shalapay said. “My mother passed away six weeks ago, she was in bad health, and I went over straight away to western Ukraine.
“We had a funeral Mass and there were explosions happening outside. We were inside the church and could hear them going off. While I was staying there we lost electricity, power, everything. We didn’t know what was going on outside.
“I brought my father with me back to Ireland and he is staying with us. His health wouldn’t be too good but at least he is here in Ireland and I can look after him.”
Mr Shalapay said his family would celebrate Christmas with a traditional 12-dish dinner on Friday evening, a symbol of the 12 apostles, and Mass on Saturday.
“My niece is currently gone to Turkey for a few days with her boyfriend, who she met in Ireland, so she will not be with us for Christmas,” he added.
“She is working full-time in a hotel since April and is happy here. She misses her parents and her home. My brother is still there, my niece’s mother and her grandmother so she is always worried about them but we talk to them every day. She has made a lot of friends here and is happy, she is safe, that’s the main thing.”
Halyna Hersym, originally from Lviv in western Ukraine, has been living in Dublin since 2020 and is completing a PhD in sociology in UCD.
Ms Hersym travelled back to the Ukrainian city earlier this week to celebrate Christmas with her parents and siblings.
“In our family, Christmas is a very important thing, it’s a big deal so I decided to come home,” she said.
“My brother is not allowed to leave Ukraine, he is 23 and of the age where he cannot cross the border and I hadn’t seen him for a year. We are very close and I just wanted to see him.
“There were a couple of missile attacks, an air raid siren went off just a couple of minutes ago but it is relatively safe, it is not like Kyiv or Kharkiv, it’s safer here.”
Ms Hersym said she had not seen her whole family together since last Christmas and this year was “particularly special” due to the war.
“A lot of my friends are on the front line, friends who live in Kyiv, in these times it is important to have this warmth, light and connection to your family at Christmas,” she added.
“Because of this enormous war and grief, in particular this Christmas it’s important to be with someone you love and I feel it not only with my family, but also with my friends.
“My family has been very lucky and fortunate, we haven’t lost any family members. We did lose some friends but there is hope and a feeling of, both in our family and our country, nobody was able to break us last year and this year we hope to endure and to rebuild.”
