Olha Skoryk now lives with her two children in Louth where she still holds weekly online classes with her former students who have escaped the war to live all over the world.
The young widow’s story and powerful images of her home as it was being built, finished and then shelled in the war form part of an ongoing My Streets photographic exhibition in Drogheda Library by Ukrainian and Irish photographers.
“I was born and grew up in the city of Chernihiv in north Ukraine which is only 50km from the border with Russia,” she said.
“I was a primary school teacher there and I had everything in my life. My house, my husband, my children, a normal life.
“From the first day of the war, the city was attacked and surrounded by the Russian army. We couldn’t get out. We were very scared and my children and I spent three weeks hiding in the basement of our house before we were saved by volunteers who helped us get to Kyiv and onto Poland.
“We were hiding in our basement at first and then we moved to the centre of the city where we sheltered with over 1000 others. There was no heating, electricity or even water at times.
Olha Skoryk with her children Oleh and Valerie.
“People tried to go back to their houses and apartments at times if possible to try and find something to eat. And we were bombed from aeroplanes up to six times a day.
“When I was able to charge my phone, I saw the last messages from my husband Vitalii (35) which said, ‘please, please stay alive and save yourselves.
“My husband was an IT specialist working in the Czech Republic and because he had volunteered in the army in 2014, he felt he had to protect us and his country so he went to fight for Ukraine.
“When I was in Poland, I got a call from friends to say he had been killed in a battle in Popasna. He is our hero.
“No one could get into the area until Russian forces left a month later. Then volunteers found his body in March 2022. He was only 35 years old. We didn’t get to say goodbye or go to a funeral.
“I thought I would be able to go back, that the war would end sooner. But now I can’t go back yet. I must be alive for my children. I am both their mum and dad together now and I must do everything to give my son Oleh (11) and daughter Valerie (16) a normal life.
“Now we are in Ireland where I wake up every morning grateful that I’m with my children in a peaceful place where we can work, study and just go outside and not be afraid.
Olha Skoryk with her children Oleh and Valerie.
“We are very happy here. My children have made friends and take part in a lot of clubs in the town. We have embraced a lot of Irish culture and traditions such as Halloween and St Patrick’s Day and it is important that we should do that,” Olha said.
Valerie won an elite athlete scholarship at Our Lady’s College in Greenhills in Drogheda and both my children have won their first Irish swimming medals.
“At the minute, I’m concentrating on improving my language as before I got here, English was a subject at university that I had studied 20 years ago.
“When I arrived here, I continued taking my primary school class online and pupils had moved all over the world so time differences were challenging.
“Then the children all started in local primary schools but I still teach Ukrainian to them every Saturday morning online.
“I tell my Irish friends that when this is all over, they are very welcome to come and visit my country. The Irish have been so kind and welcoming to us and I can’t thank them enough for that.”
The exhibition continues in the Drogheda Library until the end of the month.
