A large crowd descended on the county town this afternoon to call for an end to the occupation of Ukraine.
The rally was part of a series nationwide to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s illegal invasion of the country.
Ennis was transformed into a sea of saffron and blue this afternoon and although this is not an unusual sight in the county town, it came with a sombre undertone.
Today officially marks two years since Russian tanks, troops and artillery rolled into Ukraine, leaving a trail of devastation in their wake and a large crowd gathered at the O’Connell Monument in Ennis today in a show of solidarity.
Addressing the gathering at the foot of the great liberator, was Erina who recently relocated to Ennis and told of the horrors still facing her people at home.
The conflict has triggered the greatest humanitarian crisis seen in Europe since WWII and there are now over 100,000 Ukrainian refugees in Ireland with 5,518 in Clare.
The Kremlin has claimed today that it’s seized some 200 Ukrainian troops in the fight for Avdiivka, while fighting also rages on in the Southern Port City of Odessa, in the Donbas, Kharkiv and the capital Kyiv.
Svetlana who fled Kyiv only eight months ago says that while she dreams of returning home, she believes a full Ukrainian victory is the only way peace will come to fruition.
Many speakers took the opportunity to praise the role Clare has played in accommodating arrivals from the war-torn state thus far.
In the Ennistymon Electoral area, one in every eight people living there are now Ukrainian refugees, which is the highest rate per capita anywhere in the country.
Fittingly, the event which commenced at 2pm with the Ukrainian national anthem, would ultimately conclude with a rousing rendition of The Cranberries’s anti-war anthem ‘Zombie’ sung by Daria who fled the conflict at the outset two years ago.
You can listen to the full report below.
