Twelve seriously ill Belorussian children who arrived in Shannon yesterday afternoon on a Chernobyl Children's Project sponsored holiday, spent the first night of their stay with the Army in the Curragh, Co Kildare.
Today they move to Barretstown Castle, also in Co Kildare, where they will spend a fortnight's holiday and receive specialist medical treatment.
Ten of the children, aged from 7 to 12 years, are suffering from leukaemia and two are afflicted by brain tumours. The children's stay at Barretstown Castle, which has been specially converted to care for seriously-ill children, will allow them to benefit from supervised indoor and outdoor activities, such as canoeing, horse-riding, painting and sculpture.
One of two Belorussian doctors travelling with the children, Dr Irina Kolmanovich, who has visited Ireland eight times, said the children who visit Barretstown have an opportunity to "forget about their illness and feel like normal children". The children's stay in Kildare is being funded by a local group of the Chernobyl Children's Project based in Kiltimagh, Co Mayo, while all of their transport needs in Ireland are being provided by the Clonmel, Limerick City and Laois branches of the Civil Defence.
Ms Winifred Wimpsey, chairwoman of the Kiltimagh group, said it was lovely to meet the children but it was "tinged with sadness", knowing what they have to go back to and that their stay is so short.
These children differ from the 1,100 others who have visited Ireland this summer as part of the Chernobyl Children's Project, in that they are seriously ill. Most who come here do not require the specialist treatment offered at Barretstown, but benefit simply by escaping from their radioactively contaminated environment, even for just a few weeks. Ms Adi Roche, the director of the project, said the director of one Belorussian children's hospital believes that the children who stay in Ireland for one month are "returned two years of stolen life".
A total of 10,000 children have benefited from the Chernobyl Children's Project, which was set up five years after the nuclear power plant disaster took place in 1986.