By Dionne Meehan
HUGE crowds gathered in Ramelton last week to attend an event which was organised in the wake of the recent riots in Dublin.
Hoping to showcase Donegal’s welcoming spirit, owners of the Bridge Bar Restaurant, Roisin Llorente and her husband Matthias Llorente wanted to prove that not everyone is tarred with the same brush.
With the help of Declan Meehan, who is manager of Milford and District Resource Centre, the three managed to organise an extremely successful event.
Speaking to the Donegal News this week, Declan said the event received a brilliant turn out.
“There were around 150 people there in total over the course of the evening,” he said.
“We had a lot of locals dropping in showing support and it was a great informal event.
“There were lots of people mixing and chatting.”
With some of the Ukrainian community arriving in Ramelton as recently as August and September, Declan said lots of stories were shared on the night.
“There was one man I was chatting to where his village was invaded by the Russians and flattened as recently as September.
“I feel like these are the types of things we forget because the news coverage has kind of dropped off around the war in Ukraine.
“We can forget that all this is still going on and people are still fleeing war from ,” he said.
With plenty of music and food shared on the night, Declan said it was a great evening.
“Locals wanted to show their support and they were curious to come and meet some of the Ukrainian people that are living locally.
“There hadn’t been an event like that in Ramelton before to give that opportunity.
“That was the beauty of the event, so informal, very social and people got to make connections.
“Hopefully it will help a lot towards integration,” he said.
Describing the event as “absolutely fabulous”, Roisin Llorente spoke about the entertainment on the night.
“We had lovely music from the Letterkenny Ukulele Orchestra, they were amazing.
“They played for nearly two hours.
“We also had music from one of the Ukrainians, he played saxophone. He was brilliant.
“Another entertained us with a mix of Irish and Ukrainian dancing, it was absolutely fabulous, really joyful stuff,” she said.
Taken aback by the kindness of the locals, Roisin said the Ukrainian community were a bit shocked by what was going on.
“Then, within a couple of minutes they were washing dishes, going around with tea and it was a real family feel.
“There was just a real warm vibe around the whole thing,” she said.
With a lot of negative news circulating recently, Roisin said it was nice to do something positive.
“It received really great local support.
“Everybody wanted to do something.
“It was on everyone’s mind to be a bit more positive,” she said.
Now wanting to repay the favour, the Ukrainian community are trying to organise an event for the beginning of January.
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