But, unlike Scrooge, Cahersiveen has long recognised the value of compassion and kindness, showing it from the off when it came to helping those fleeing Russia\u2019s invasion <\/a>of Ukraine<\/a> since February 2022.<\/p>\n A report last month from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed 119,043 personal public service (PPS) numbers have been issued to Ukrainians since they started arriving in Ireland after the Russian invasion. At the end of August, 83,594 Ukrainians remained in the State.<\/p>\n The CSO report showed that Kenmare Municipal District in Co Kerry, an area that stretches from Kenmare<\/a> around the Ring of Kerry up to Killorglin, had both the highest number of arrivals of Ukrainians (1,873) and the highest proportion of Ukrainians for every 100 people of the population.<\/p>\n Within the Kenmare Municipal District, the largest concentration of Ukrainians is in Cahersiveen. About 200 mainly women and children came to the town in March 2022. Their arrival in local hotels posed immediate challenges for the town\u2019s schools.<\/p>\n Teresa N\u00ed Chr\u00f3in\u00edn, principal of Scoil Saidhbh\u00edn, explains the challenge the school faced when they learned on a Friday that 200 refugees were coming to stay in the Sceilg Star Hotel. Among the group were 40 to 50 children looking for places in a school with 101 pupils.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember looking out the front door the first morning to see 200 children and adults standing at the gate in silence,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n \u201cOur plan was to start with getting the youngest children settled first, get them to file in neatly and nicely, so I went out to welcome them and give them my instructions.\u201d<\/p>\n N\u00ed Chr\u00f3in\u00edn says she was met \u201cblank faces\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI suddenly realised nobody had a clue what I was talking about, but luckily one girl put her hand up and said: \u2018I speak English.\u2019 She came to the rescue.\u201d<\/p>\n Her \u201cbrilliant\u201d staff came \u201cunder serious pressure\u201d, she says, coping with the pupil number rising from 101 to 154 and one class increasing from 14 to 32.<\/p>\n \u201cBut the children too were incredible; they just instinctively took a back seat and just welcomed everyone.\u201d <\/p>\n English classes were organised, and with support from the Department of Education staff numbers went from seven to 10.<\/p>\n [\u00a0\u2018Longford was the town of my dreams. In Ukraine, I lived in a big city and it was terrible\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n Today, the new arrivals speak not only English but have begun learning Irish and can sing the Cahersiveen anthem, Sigerson Clifford\u2019s Boys of Barr na Sr\u00e1ide.<\/p>\n In the run-up to the festive season, the focus in Scoil Saidhbh\u00edn is on preparing for the Christmas play.<\/p>\n As they prepare for their parts, Sofia and Kateryna chat with their friend Mark Fedan, a rapper Ghost of Christmas Future who delivers his lines in perfect English with just a hint of a Kerry accent.<\/p>\n Sofia is from Kherson in southern Ukraine and came to Cahersiveen with her mother, Tatyena Gavrelova. Kateryna is from Khymelnytski in western Ukraine and arrived in the Co Kerry town with her mother Iryna Yuzkova and grandfather Viktor Yuzkov.<\/p>\n Mark, who was living in Lviv when the war broke out, came to Cahersiveen with his mother, Marjana, who works with the South West Kerry Family Resource Centre in the town. They are full of praise for the way the people of Cahersiveen have made them feel at home.<\/p>\n [\u00a0\u2018We realised we don\u2019t know English, not the way it\u2019s spoken in Ireland\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a very great principal,\u201d he says, with an impish smile as he looks at Ms N\u00ed Chr\u00f3in\u00edn.<\/p>\n Marjana, who has been back to Ukraine twice this year for family funerals, echoes her son\u2019s views. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was difficult when we came first; we were living in a hotel, but here people give a lot of love and understanding to Ukrainian people, organising English classes and all.\u201d<\/p>\n Another Ukrainian arrival similarly impressed by the support is Oleksii Zborovskyi from Odesa on the Black Sea in southern Ukraine. His son George is autistic but has received one-to-one tuition and support in Scoil Saidhbh\u00edn.<\/p>\n \u201cThe school is amazing,\u201d says Oleksii, who works as a chef with Irish Ferries. \u201cGeorge has a one-to-one teacher and the staff here are so well qualified and professional, and there is better support for him here than in Ukraine and we have seen him make good progress.\u201d<\/p>\n Maurice Fitzgerald, principal of the town\u2019s secondary school Col\u00e1iste na Sceilge, and his staff of 60 also saw their pupil numbers soar with an influx of Ukrainians. At one point the school added 85 students to the 500 already on its books before student numbers settled down now to 550.<\/p>\n Availing of Department of Education<\/a> support through the English as an Additional Language (EAL) scheme, Fitzgerald and his staff set up special classes in English for the new arrivals, keeping them within the existing class schedule so no student had to stay back after hours to learn the language.<\/p>\n Assisted by some Ukrainian women with teaching backgrounds, the classes helped the Ukrainian students to improve their language skills. The school also held them back an extra year in second year and fourth year to give them more time to prepare for State exams.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a period where we probably had to get used to each other\u2019s culture, but after a period of time there was a great trust built up between the two nationalities, and we built up very strong relationships with the parents too,\u201d says Fitzgerald, a former Kerry footballer<\/a>.<\/p>\n He described the early period as \u201cextremely difficult\u201d as news of the war in Ukraine filtered back from their homes and regions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was difficult for us to have a concept of what that must feel like for them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just tried to normalise things as much as possible for them, surround them with as much support as was humanly possible, while still trying to maintain the integrity of a system where you are trying to achieve high standards, so it was a question of keeping that balance.\u201d<\/p>\n Midway between Scoil Saidhbh\u00edn and Col\u00e1iste na Sceilge lies the Kerry South Development Partnership, a community-led local development company. Many of Cahersiveen\u2019s Ukrainian community have taken their first steps towards employment through the partnership. Several have set up their own businesses. The partnership\u2019s rural development manager, Joseph McCrohan, says the agency continued to help Ukrainians find work, with the new arrivals accounting for 120 of the 145 on its scheme for the long-term unemployed.<\/p>\n![\"Scoil](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/JXWZ77TD4FBETM3JWRH72DXWSM.jpg\")
Scoil Saidhbh\u00edn principal Teresa N\u00ed Chr\u00f3in\u00edn with Kateryna Reshetnikova, Sofia Laptenko, Mark Fedan and George Zborovskyi. Photograph: Alan Landers <\/p>\n![\"Maurice](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/K46NRCTCUFEW7LJNJXZNSIM5IA.jpg\")
Maurice Fitzgerald, principal at Col\u00e1iste na Sceilge in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, with deputy principal Ann Marie Killen (left) and Ukrainian support staff Lolita Egberipou and Nataliia Lebedieva. Photograph: Alan Landers <\/p>\n
![\"Taking](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/WDNWSOTC2RBDHJZWAI3VYYJ2GI.jpg\")
Taking to the water with Sive Rowing Club in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, Ukrainian rowers (front) Alla Binieieva, Nataliia Sulatska, Zhanna Stetsyk, Hanna Melnikova and cox Mikey Murphy; (back) Andrii Shtoda, Oleh Mekeda, Pavlo Melnikov, Alex Filipashko and cox Padraig O’Shea. Photograph: Alan Landers ![\"Pictured](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/K5GCSSSQFFBQHC56G3IK3AYLRY.jpg\")
Pictured at the Garden of Remembrance in Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, Joan O’Donoghue (centre) of Cahersiveen Tidy Towns with Cllr Norma Moriarty (right), and helpers Anife Nimetullaiera, Svitlana Radova, Ad de Vroome and Yurii Lrebediev. Photograph: Alan Landers ![\"Fianna](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Z4UO3C5G2BEFTCKSYBZAUKAWSE.jpg\")
Fianna F\u00e1il councillor Norma Moriarty says the arrival of Ukrainians helped reverse a fall in Cahersiveen\u2019s population. Photograph: Alan Landers <\/p>\n