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UKRAINIANS LIVING IN a building formerly used as student accommodation in Cork city have expressed shock and sadness about plans to relocate them.
Around 300 Ukrainian refugees – mostly women and children – are currently living in the privately-owned Cork Student Village on the Carrigrohane Road, near the Victoria Cross area of the city.
The Department of Integration recently wrote to residents, telling them they would be relocated next month.
The letter, seen by TheJournal, advises residents that department officials will attend the complex on 4 and 5 March to make arrangements for alternative accommodation.
The letter states that due to the pressure on accommodation in the country, requests for housing in a specific area will not be taken into account, except in cases where there is a serious medical issue.
Residents in the complex have built a supportive community – cooking in shared kitchens, helping elderly neighbours with medical care, and watching their children adapt to local schools.
People like Irina are facing their second or third move since arriving in Ireland, dismantling the support networks they’ve carefully constructed.
“I still can’t collect my sister’s ashes,” Irina (65) says, her voice breaking as she speaks to The Journal over a video call.
Her sister died of an aggressive form of cancer in August 2024, but the €2,400 cremation bill remains unpaid. Now, facing mandatory relocation on 13 March 2025, Irina fears she’ll never retrieve the urn.
If they move me again, I’ll have to leave her behind too.
Olga, a preschool teacher who lives in the building with her son, also fears for the future.
“We understand we’re guests here. Each move means starting over: new schools for kids, new doctors for the elderly, new bus routes to reach work or study,” she told us.
Born near Bakhmut, a city that made headlines in early 2023 after months of brutal battle ended with Russian occupation, Olga now helps coordinate community support among the refugees in Cork.
“We lived near a power station in an area completely ruined by war,” she says.
“I left with my children before the Russian occupation and worked in Kyiv as a preschool teacher.
“When a building four storeys high near us was hit, and my son’s school lost its windows in the explosion, we decided to leave in March 2024.”
Olga first found refuge in Rosscarbery, a village in county Cork, before moving to the student village on Carrigrohane Road six months later.
Concerned about another displacement, she gathered over 80 signatures from people in the student village in two days for a petition to the government explaining their community’s situation.
“We have elderly residents who are connected to local hospitals, including those who are bedridden. Many people work in Cork. Others are studying, hoping to integrate into society,” she explains.
“People are gripped by a panicked fear of the unknown — terrified they’ll be abandoned and stripped of what little stability they’ve found.”
Olga’s 10-year-old son has already changed schools once this year after their move from Rosscarbery to Cork city.
“Why should he leave again without finishing the year?,” she asks.
There are around 50 school-age children living in the student village who may need to repeat the school year if they are forced to relocate.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, around 113,600 Ukrainians have been granted temporary protection in Ireland. Some people have returned home but around 85,000 Ukrainians remain, according to figures from the Central Statistics Office.
The Temporary Protection Directive, an EU law that deals with a ‘mass influx’ of people in need of international protection, was first activated by Ireland in March 2022 in response to the war in Ukraine. It has been extended to March 2026.
However, many people are struggling to find or keep accommodation. Ukainians living here can apply for certain social welfare payments, but they cannot access the Housing Assistance Payment (HAP).
Last week, the Ukraine Civil Society Forum warned that tens of thousands of Ukrainians being housed by Irish people may lose their accommodation unless a payment scheme for hosts is extended beyond March.
Speaking to The Journal, Irina explains the full weight of her situation. She and her sister fled bombed Kharkiv together, sharing a room in the temporary accommodation.
The cancer moved swiftly through her sister’s body — two weeks of pain, then vomiting, followed by six weeks in University Hospital Cork and nine days in the hospice.
Doctors called it aggressive cancer, often triggered by stress. After two years of war and multiple relocations, stress is something Ukrainian refugees know intimately.
The fact she may have to move once again has pushed Irina to make a drastic decision.
“I’m sending my belongings to Kharkiv with a carrier. There are bombings there, but it’s better than here. With my pancreas problems and gastritis, I need to cook diet food.
“If they move us to a hostel with instant soups and no stove, I’d rather go back to Kharkiv under bombs.”
Healthcare access for Ukrainian refugees remains a critical issue.
Violetta is a 54-year-old medical professional from Bucha — a town that became synonymous with war crimes after 458 civilian bodies were discovered there in 2022.
Now she serves as an unofficial caregiver. She takes care of her 78-year-old neighbour, Raisa, who suffers from diabetes, heart issues and post-Covid breathing problems.
Despite her medical background, Violetta can’t practice in Ireland without perfect English.
After losing her job at a yogurt factory in Clonakilty due to repeated refugee relocations, she is adapting by studying hairdressing and manicures, hoping to work in a beauty studio in Cork.
But her medical skills aren’t going to waste – she provides emergency care to Raisa herself, giving injections and managing crises.
The healthcare challenges extend beyond emergency care. Residents must travel an hour and a half by bus to see their GP in Rosscarbery, as applications to three different medical centres in Cork remain unanswered.
“Every night I wake up and listen if Raisa still breathes,” Violetta says.
If they relocate us to different villages, who will care for her? In Rosscarbery, I fought for small mercies – first they would send her alone, then finally allowed me to accompany her.
“But here, I don’t know whom I should even ask. I applied for guardianship but was refused because Raisa can still walk,” Violetta explains.
The dormitory setup with bunk beds feels suitable for students, but challenging for residents in their 50s and older. One day Violetta tripped while climbing to the upper bed and broke her foot.
Raisa says she and others have been shuffled around “like cards in a deck”.
“My family home in Kharkiv stands as a frame without doors and windows. Now it’s a ghost, not a house at all.
“My only granddaughter is in the Czech Republic, sharing a two-bedroom apartment with six people — where else would I go?
“Here we have a pharmacy nearby. It’s warm here, dry, and clean. Yes, it’s crowded but okay.
They shuffle us around like cards in a deck. At 78, I don’t have much fight left, but I feel sorry for the children. Olga’s boy just entered a new school.
In the student village, these women have created more than shelter – they’ve built a support system. They dream of gathering to rent an apartment together.
However, they said landlords have consistently refused them, saying they don’t want children or older people as tenants.
As efforts to house newcomers to Ireland continue, people like this community in Cork are left without a clear path to stable housing.
As our conversation ends, Irina, who lost her sister in Cork and couldn’t retrieve her ashes, offers a final plea: “They say peace negotiations might start soon in Ukraine. They say the hot phase of war could end by June 2025.
“Could the Irish government just let us stay [in the student village] until then? Just for half a year?”
With additional reporting by Órla Ryan
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