New to the Parish: Marharyta Pokydailo lives with her grandparents in the village of Woodford while her parents remain in Ukraine
Marharyta Pokydailo’s teenage years haven’t been what she expected. Aged 15 she lived in Kyiv’s vibrant city centre with her parents, thriving at school and playing piano. Then. Today, aged 17, she and her grandparents live in Woodford village in southeast Galway, 17km from Portumna, while her parents still live in Kyiv.
She’s in fifth year in the Mercy College across the road. “I like the school very much. I feel I integrated fairly quickly. I found lots of friends. I’m really happy in the school. The teachers are lovely. And my classmates, they’re very friendly.”‘I came to Ireland in 2016. If I came in 2024 I wouldn’t survive because now the rents are like €3,000’
I hope when I finish my undergraduate education, the war will finish. I don’t know where I want to live but I definitely want to help to rebuild An only child, her parents, Irene and Mark Pokydailo, both work in the civil service, in law and IT. “These are the people we need now the most probably.” Before the war, they had a comfortable middle-class life: an apartment in the city, a country house in a village nearby for summers, regular foreign holidays. “We could afford go on a trip, buy a new car.” Her maternal grandparents lived in another city district.
Before coming she knew “a bit about Irish history. The famine, Cliffs of Moher, Trinity College, because it’s really famous! In Ukraine it’s much more sunny. In Ireland it’s raining but I’m the kind of person who loves rain. In the winter, my freckles were gone, but now they’re back again!” There was no piano at Bark Hill, but a community of music lovers, Noelle Lynskey, director of Portumna’s Shorelines Arts Festival, pianist Finghin Collins and Music For Galway helped organise the loan of a Kawai piano from Pianos Plus in Dublin. Pokydailo is delighted. “It’s really good. I really love it. It’s just perfect.”
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