Tag Archives: Burren Chernobyl Project

AS a 17-year-old boy Pat Conway was behind the first Lahinch to Liscannor swim in 1972, and he will complete it for the 50th and last time, on August 7.  While different charities benefited from the swim in its early years, for a long time now all of the proceeds have been going to the Burren Chernobyl Project. That will be the case again this year, and while Pat won’t be directly taking part after 2022, he plans for the event to continue and his favoured charity to continue to benefit. In the summer of 1972 Pat was a teenage lifeguard in Lahinch, and was one of a small group that organised the first swim, but he could hardly have thought it’d still be going 50 years on. “It’s something we started as a fun challenge, going from the lifeguard box over to Liscannor. Then we said we might as well do it for charity. It kind of built from …

THE Russian invasion of Ukraine has presented new problems for the Burren Chernobyl Project, which has worked to help victims of the Chernobyl disaster. Spokesperson Liam O’Meara said, “It’s a challenge in several areas. We’ve been working away with the orphanages, a load was sent there at the end of January, it got as far as Lithuania and was held up in a port, which meant we’d be paying more every day it was in the port. We thought it might never get through, but luckily it did.” Burren Chernobyl Project provides support to Belarus, and there are concerns that the vulnerable there will not get support. “A friend of mine in Belarus said will we be North Korea? Will we be shunned and people not want to help, will people think differently of the country?” The war may mean less resources for the orphanages there, he feels. “They’re just coming out of Covid, they were very much locked down …

To mark the 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Burren Chernobyl Project is holding a fundraising walk in Ennistymon next Sunday (April 24, 2016). Nicola Corless spoke to Brother Liam O’Meara, director of the project, about the organisation’s work and his full-time involvement with it for the past 15 years.   Brother Liam is a Limerick man, reared on the border with Tipperary close to Galbally. He studied primary teaching at Mary Immaculate College and taught for four years in Limerick before becoming a Christian Brother in 1981 and working in schools in Cork. He moved to Ennistymon in 1986, the same year as the worst nuclear power plant accident in history, in Chernobyl, Ukraine. Liam taught happily in the three-teacher CBS primary school in the North Clare town until 1999, when he dedicated himself fully to working with the Burren Chernobyl Project. The organisation was founded in 1993, with projects kicking off the following year. It was then …

PEOPLE in Ennis will be putting their best foot forward this weekend in a bid to raise funds for the Burren Chernobyl Project. A fun run/walk will be held on this Saturday, starting at 11am at The Junction in Cloughleigh. The event is being organised as three local creche workers prepare to head to Belarus this August to volunteer at an orphanage. Hazel O’Connor, Bridget Punch and Lisa Cullinan, who work at the Lifford Childcare Centre, will volunteer at the Gorodishche orphanage, joining others from the Burren Chernobyl Project. And in order to raise funds for the worthy cause, the fun run / walk has been organised with hopes that hundreds of people will take part. With a choice of two routes, five kilometres and ten kilometres, the event is something that anybody can take part in. And there will also be some special guests making an appearance. “We will have Clare goalie Pa Kelly signing jerseys and also Mickey …