Belarusian Opposition Leader Tsikhanouskaya's Memories Of Ireland, As A 'Child Of Chernobyl'
udf.bySvyatlana Tsikhanouskaya in Ireland in the 1990s In the wake of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster on April 26, 1986, parents in the hard-hit regions of Ukraine, Belarus, and western Russia were desperate to get their children out of the irradiated zone, if only for a few weeks. Ultimately, tens of thousands would spend summer vacations in the West, including Ireland, where a local longtime nuclear disarmament activist was at the vanguard of efforts to help the children of Chernobyl, as they came to be called.