"I had a wish that the people of the Aran Islands would open their hearts and their homes, as so many others have done, to restore the lost childhood of those children," Ms Adi Roche, in executive director of the Chernobyl Children's Project, said yesterday.
She had just welcomed at Shannon Airport the first of a group of 1,200 children who are coming to Ireland this year to escape the intense heat of the Belarussian summer. This, she explained, redistributes "the deadly particles of irradiated soil from the Chernobyl disaster of 12 years ago and spreads radioactive materials afresh".
Of the 112 children who made the 1,560-mile flight from Minsk, in what was formerly White Russia, seven are going to families on Inis Mor. Many of the children come from remote villages, of which 500 had to be burned to the ground or encased in concrete, so high were the levels of radiation.
When told that they would be spending a month, if not two, on an island off the coast of Ireland, Alexander, an orphan, and Peter, who come from a region of high radiation outside Gonel, said through their escort, Olga Belaya, "That's great, that's lovely". They live more than 500 miles inland and have never seen an expanse of water before.
All are aged between six and 11 years. They are going to four different families on the main island. Mrs Margaret Dirrane, who is a native of Cork and married into one of the island's best-known families, has three children of her own; she is taking two boys. Her mother-in-law, Mrs Bridget Dirrane, at the age of 103 recently wrote the book Woman of Aran.
Mrs Jackie Roantree, whose husband, Sean, is skipper of one of the island ferries, was already sitting on the floor making friends with the two boys they are taking.
Others are going to families in Adare, Co Limerick, various parts of Co Cork and south Kerry. Mrs Joan Griffin, of Waterville, is taking twins, Alex and Ivan, who suffer from high radiation levels. She says she had two other children last year "and they were no trouble".
Dr Alex Zolovuk, director of the Children's Hospital for the Soligorsk region, says that the children who stay in Ireland for at least one month "are returned two years of stolen life. The intervention is crucial in order to help build up their damaged immune systems".
The eight flights for the 1,200 children will cost £250,000, and Ms Roche said that already £1 million worth of aid has been sent out to the stricken area. Altogether 5,000 children have come to Ireland since the project began eight years ago.