My chat with young lad in Warsaw hit home grim reality of war in Ukraine – how can Ireland be neutral in face of Putin?

The Irish Sun

2 days ago

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WE'RE here, 1,000 kilometres away from there. Here, freedom is taken for granted. We bask in the luxuriousness of being 'neutral'.
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We're fine and dandy.
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Putin will set his sights on Europe if he can take Ukraine
Credit: AP:Associated Press
There, freedom is snatched in between the whizz of bullets, the motorbike roar of a kamikaze
Here, we concoct virtuous words vowing to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the people over there.
There, they live without the comfort of words, they have but their wits.
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I was in
A trickle turned into a flood, naturally of course, as
Bucha, where hundreds of civilians were tortured, executed and buried in mass graves.
Borodyanka, systematically destroyed by the Russians.
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Mariupol, besieged by Russian forces for months at the start of the war.
The city was laid waste and thousands of civilians were killed.
Putin defies Trump's ultimatum and BOMBARDS Ukraine – as Kremlin mouthpiece warns Russia will 'turn Kyiv into Hiroshima'
Stari Bykiv and Novyi Kyiv, where Russians executed civilians and blew up both towns.
Makariv, where Russians tortured and killed civilians.
Kherson, where civilians were subjected to abduction, torture, beating, arbitrary detention and summary execution.
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And on, and on the list goes of Russian atrocities.
Three years of Russian aggression has killed more than one million people,
Ukrainian civilians, though, have borne the brunt of the violence and the terror.
No wonder they fled in their millions, scattered across the world, the majority in
All told, some 5.6 million
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I spent three days in Warsaw last week. The most welcoming place on earth.
CULTURE CAPITAL
Razed to the ground as revenge by the retreating
They did, reconstructing each destroyed building with meticulous care.
The result is that today, Warsaw is one of Europe's most beautiful, most elegant cities.
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The Polish capital has a population that hovers around the two million mark.
Some 300,000 of them are Ukrainian refugees.
The Ukrainians are everywhere you go, but they are teenagers, women or pensioners.
There are no Ukrainian men. They are all at home fighting the Russians.
The Ukrainians are woven into Polish society. Their languages are similar, so it's an easier task there, than here.
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But they work hard, as hairdressers, barmen, waitresses, mechanics,
Many have opened their own businesses too. Life must go on.
DREAMING OF HOME
One evening, after a long day wandering Warsaw, I stopped for a beer as dusk descended.
A skinny lad, no more than 17, with scruffy red hair and braces on his teeth, served me my pint.
He had a permanent mischief grin on his face, as all teenagers do.
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I spoke English to him, and he replied fluently. I asked him if he was a Warsaw boy, and he told me he was from Ukraine.
'Three years here,' he said. 'Me and my mom. My dad is at the front.
'I haven't seen him since we came here. It's too dangerous to go home.'
Where's home, I asked. 'Chernihiv,' he replied.
A city near the frontline, north of Kyiv, that has been regularly pounded by Russian missiles and drones, killing many civilians.
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'I like Warsaw,' he went on. 'The place is cool. We are like the Poles. It's probably going to be my home forever.
'I can't imagine the war ending. I can only dream of home,' he lamented.
UNPREDICTABLE PRESIDENT
This young boy should be free, instead he's in exile. The culprit,
Russia has intensified attacks on Ukrainian civilians in recent weeks.
Dozens have died in ferocious nightly drone and missile barrages.
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All across the 1,000km frontline that cuts Ukraine in two from north to south, Russia is slowly advancing.
It has a numerical, ten-to-one advantage over Ukraine in terms of troops. How much longer can Ukraine hold out?
All the while,
This week, his frustration with the Russian tyrant was revealed in a call with Ukraine's leader.
He reportedly asked
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Zelensky replied: 'Absolutely. We can if you give us the weapons.'
Trump went on to signal his support for the strategy, which he said would 'make them (Russians) feel the pain' and force Putin to the negotiating table.
FANTASY LAND
Here's hoping he fulfils that promise.
But Trump changes his mind so often, no one, especially the Ukrainians, can trust what he says.
What Zelensky and his people do know, however, is that without American support, they will struggle to stop the Russians winning the war.
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If they don't, Putin will one day invade the Baltic states. He will probe into Moldova,
His megalomaniac vision is to restore the old Soviet Empire.
History is full of similar madmen who tried the same.
Here, we're still living in fantasy land, where Ireland is neutral.
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How can anyone be neutral when faced with Vladimir Putin, the greatest existential threat to European civilisation since Adolf Hitler?
To be neutral is to turn your back on reality, to stick your head in the sand.
HE'S SCOT WINNING FORMULA
On the eve of The Open, which began at Royal Portrush in
The 29-year-old told reporters: 'At the end of the day, I'm not out here to inspire the next generation of golfers.
'This is not a fulfilling life. It's fulfilling from the sense of accomplishment, but it's not fulfilling from the deepest places of your heart.'
He added, existentially: 'If I win, it's going to be awesome for two minutes.
'Then we go home and I'm changing diapers in the morning. You have that sense of accomplishment and then it's gone.
"It's like, 'What's the point?' I wrestle with that on a daily basis.'
What makes Scottie whole? It's not the many millions he banks for hitting a small white ball around manicured greens, no, that doesn't cut the mustard.
Being a husband and dad does (apart from the nappies, surely).
He's right, of course.
How refreshing to hear one of the world's best (and richest) sportsmen speak candidly about what makes him tick.
I always had the impression
How wrong I was.
Scottie has his priorities right. If you look after yourself and those you love first, what brings in the money comes naturally, easily.
It requires less work.
My
Then again, that might be me letting the heart rule the head (I do that a lot, sure isn't life better when you let the heart be king).
Portrush is a links course. There'll be plenty of wind and rain.
Rory, then surely? The local boy on home turf to lift the Claret Jug on Sunday afternoon?
ARAS RACE
WHO cares who's President? The office, occupied for the last 14 years by
The President has the status of a king.
Their main job, hosting tea parties and waxing lyrical about 'culture', 'heritage' and the 'arts'.
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Two candidates have thrown their hats in to be the next one.
Independent TD, Catherine Connolly, supported by much of the political left and former EU stalwart, Mairead McGuinness,
Snooze.
WRONG PRIORITIES
AS the people of Ireland continue to be Europe's most fleeced, the
A largely symbolic gesture that, if enacted, would HARM the Irish
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Trumps tariffs are a looming threat
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The Americans wouldn't be happy, you see.
They are full square behind Israel, no matter the horrors unfolding in Gaza.
The Occupied Territories Bill and the wall-to-wall waffle, all sanctimonious, during the debate in the Houses of the Oireachtas sums up our politicians.
They're more concerned with grandstanding and scoring political points than dealing with the real priorities facing Ireland's people.
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The cost-of-living crisis; the housing catastrophe; our wildly inefficient public services; our dying towns, and not least, the Trump threat to stick us and the
And what was our Government doing this week?
Playing at being the most righteous when it comes to Palestine.
CLASSLESS CULTURE
THE annual 'celebration of Orange culture' in
Those who couldn't afford to leave the North no doubt barricaded themselves indoors for the duration.
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The bonfires and the parades are a foreign land to us down here. And it will always be alien to us.
Which cretin dreamt up the sickening effigy of the migrant boat atop the bonfire at Moygashel, Co
Culture, my a**e.
ALL YELLOW
IT'S not happened since 1987, so to witness history on Monday when Ben Healy took the Yellow Jersey on the 10th stage of this year's Tour de France was really special.
Healy becomes only the fourth Irishman to wear yellow after Shay Elliott (1963), Sean Kelly (1983) and Stephen Roche (1987).
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Healy is the fourth Irishman to wear the yellow
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And on Bastille day to boot.
Chapeau, Ben.
SQUANDERED CASH
THEY bribed you with up to €1,000 a year in handouts that helped re-elect this government (albeit without the
They sweetened your view of them by giving you
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Now, they're going to take it all away.
He's right of course. Trump's tariffs are on their way and we're going to be hammered (if he carries through on his threats).
But billions were wasted handing out free
Money that should have been spent building stuff for a future has been squandered.
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