UKRAINE 2024
” Mona revisits the Ukraine No 4″
Mixed media 2024 Mary P O Connor
Women of Ukraine Series 2023
In response to the crisis facing the people of The Ukraine and in particular to the stellar work by the charity The Greater Chernobyl Cause, Cork Artist Mary P O O’Connor has created a series of paintings particularly responding to the pain of the women of the Ukraine.
There are four paintings titled “ The Bloody Battle”, “ The Review”, “ The Kick”, and “ The Dance” and they chart the nurturing nature that all women have in response to trauma.
There are a series of limited edition hand finished prints being presented at the annual commemoration of the Chernobyl disaster held in Corks Bishop Lucy Park every 26th of April and some are available for sale with all proceeds going to the The Greater Chernobyl Cause charity and the original paintings will be auctioned at a later date.
More Info: Fiona Corcoran 087 953613330
Limited Edition of 10 Hand Finished Prints A3: 29.7 x 42.0 cm
signed in pencil by the artist Mary P O Connor
Please fill in your details below and pay and we will post the art to you or you can collect it from The Greater Chernobyl Cause shop or office or directly from the artist. Price €450 including post & packaging
The presentation is sponsored by Dacent Print www.dacentprint.ie and Marcus Framing www.marcusframing.com
On April 26th annually, The Greater Chernobyl Cause remembers and commemorates those who have suffered as a result of the Chernobyl Disaster. During a test at 1:21 a.m. on April 26th1986, in the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant, near Pripyat, Ukraine, the No. 4 reactor exploded and released thirty to forty times the amount of radioactivity released by both atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No one can predict how many human victims of the Chernobyl disaster exist to this day and how many from future generations will suffer the aftereffects of this disaster. We must not forget.
This year however, our focus cannot be on that horrific disaster alone but must also be on the terrible attacks and war crimes being perpetrated against the people of Ukraine.
Many families in Ukraine have fled to the countryside, in order to escape missile strikes in larger cities and towns. They subsist in remote villages, cut off from the outside world, due to the ravages of war. Roads are all but impassable. However, The Greater Chernobyl Cause has penetrated areas of the country unreached by other relief efforts, bringing essential supplies such as food to these forgotten people, who are living in squalor and desperately trying to survive in the inhospitable countryside close to the Russian border. We have provided 15 generators to remote villages enabling these refugees to cook and have heat and light. There are many, many more who need that help.
We finance humanitarian hubs in Ukrainian cities, including Lviv, Kviv and Kharkiv, now dubbed the ‘city of no windows’ due to the destruction caused by constant shelling. In these cities, Ukrainian citizens endure constant power cuts and blackouts. There is little prospect of work or proper education. Our charity works hard to support those suffering as much as we can with such projects as providing generators to schools so that children can have some normality, building a community bomb shelter and funding hubs which provide support 24 hours a day. We provide counselling, as trauma upon trauma are heaped on the people of Ukraine. However, there seems to be no end to the trauma for these innocent victims, as war continues.
The Greater Chernobyl Cause does not forget our Ukrainian friends here in Ireland, who have had no choice but to flee from the Russian onslaught. We provide housing, transportation, employment, counselling, etc. We also support another of our Ukrainian Partners Otchiy Dim (Father’s House). This group enabled vulnerable children, without families, to escape from bombed out buildings and travel across Ukraine to the safety of Germany. These children are now loved, educated and supported by Otchiy Dim in collaboration with The Greater Chernobyl Cause.
“I have known Fiona Corcoran since we were children and I know that she is utterly courageous and dedicated to this cause and this is why I chose to support her in this way ” – Mary P O Connor April 2023
Art created for The Greater Chernobyl Cause 2022
30 limited Edition Prints A3: 29.7 x 42.0 cm signed by the artist Mary P O Connor
Please fill in your details below and pay and we will post the art to you or you can collect it from The Greater Chernobyl Cause shop or office or directly from the artist. Price € 360 including post & packaging
The The Greater Chernobyl Cause charity is based in Cork
As the humanitarian situation in Ukraine deteriorates, we are desperately trying to get aid to those who need it most. We have worked in Ukraine for more than 25 years, assisting the poor, ill and desperate, funding the construction
of orphanages, care centres and hospices for those abandoned and forgotten by families and the State.
Many of those we helped throughout this time in our various projects have now had to flee from the Russian onslaught. Others remain, sheltering in bomb shelters and basements, as the missiles and shells rain down.
How your donations make a difference
BECAUSE OF THE WAR BETWEEN UKRAINE AND RUSSIA AND WE ARE TERRIFIED FOR OUR PEOPLE, OVER 4 MILLION HAVE FLED UKRAINE FOR NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES.
As the humanitarian situation in Ukraine deteriorates, we are desperately trying to get aid to those who need it most. We have worked in Ukraine for more than 25 years, assisting the poor, ill and desperate, funding the construction of orphanages, care centres and hospices for those abandoned and forgotten by families and the State. Many of those we helped throughout this time in our various projects have now had to flee from the Russian onslaught. Others remain, sheltering in bomb shelters and basements, as the missiles and shells rain down.
One such project is Fathers House in Kyiv, which has been supported by our charity for over two decades. This wonderful care home provides care to orphaned and abandoned babies and children, who have already endured so much in their young lives. These brave children have had to flee their sanctuary, making the gruelling journey across the border. They are now in German, and face a future filled with uncertainty.
However, those who have escaped the danger in Ukraine are the lucky ones. Every day those who can make the perilous journeys from their cities, towns and villages to the border, hoping for a chance at life away from constant barrage of artillery fire. Getting aid to the people on the ground remains a huge challenge. We continue to send containers of aid to Ukraine, but for the first time in our charities history we cannot take the aid into Ukraine. Instead, we rely on our network of charity partners and local contacts, built from our extensive work in Ukraine.
All help is welcome
One of our charity partners, Olesya Popova, has set up a support network in Lviv, in Western Ukraine. Olesya is a part of the Vincentian Community, and after herself fleeing her home in Kharkiv, is working on the frontline of the humanitarian effort. She has told us about the many disabled families and children desperately trying to leave the violence in Kharkiv for the sanctuary of the Polish border. These people then travel onwards to Holland and Switzerland, but often require to stay several days at the border.
These people are suffering from various disabilities, including some who are blind. Olyesa set up a network of shelter and support to assist with the border crossing into Poland, in what must be extremely challenging circumstances. She also oversees drivers to drive back to Kharkiv daily with aid packages, and to return to Lviv with children and elderly.
These are exceptional times, and it is heart breaking for us to watch the deteriorating situation affecting so many of our innocent and vulnerable children and adults. As an active charity in on the ground in Ukraine we would visit personally several times a year. Our work had previously been curtailed by the Pandemic, and now Ukraine has been hit by the greatest humanitarian crisis since World War 2. The number of refugees and levels of suffering are unprecedented in our lifetimes, the level of suffering unimaginable.
Your support will make a huge difference, our work is always life changing, but now unfortunately it is truly lifesaving.
All help is welcome, if you have an idea get in touch with us
If you want to use a different method to pay then call or text me on 089 4717922
This edition of prints has been generously sponsored by
Dacent Print Cork www.dacentprint.ie Marcus Framing Cork www.marcusframing.com
Fill in the form below & get the print posted to you or collect it from The Greater Chernobyl Cause shop or office