As the Covid pandemic fades into our history, Europe and the World is facing a new crisis with Russia’s war on Ukraine. The news stories and images of Ukrainians fighting for their country’s independence is a story that Ireland is all too familiar with, however the scale of the Ukrainian crisis is beyond belief. As we welcome many Ukrainians to our country, we still ask ourselves how can we help? On the 12th March Lusk Community Council raised the Ukrainian Flag over its 1916 Memorial as a symbol of friendship between our countries. We were honoured that a recent emigrant from Ukraine, Svitlana Turlo, raised the Ukrainian Flag in Lusk. As a further sign of our shared friendship, we presented Ireland’s Tricolor to Svitlana. In a truly inspirational speech, Svitlana committed to fly Ireland’s national flag in Ukraine, when she gets to return to her home. The relevance of the 1916 Proclamation was aligned with the modern day crisis by Councillor Cathal Boland, when he recited a section of the Proclamation and inter-changed Irish references to Ukrainian references as follows: “ We place the cause of the Ukrainian Republic under the protection of the Most High God. Whose blessing we invoke upon our arms and we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonour it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine. In this supreme hour the Ukrainian nation must, by its valour and discipline, and by the readiness of its children to sacrifice themselves for the common good, prove itself worthy of the august destiny to which it is called.”