A convicted Real IRA bomber was among the speakers at a rally to celebrate the victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany 80 years ago in the second World War.
John Connolly was jailed in 2002 for 14 years having been found in Co Fermanagh by undercover British soldiers with a mortar bomb, on his way to blow up a police station on Armistice Day in 2000.
Connolly is a member of the Truth and Neutrality Alliance, an anti-Nato, pro-neutrality group that is sympathetic to Russia.
He appeared on stage with a cofounder of the alliance, Bill O’Brien, at the Victory in Europe (VE) Day rally in Collon, Co Meath.
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Mr O’Brien held up a picture of Mark McCain, who was killed fighting for the 7th Motorised Rifle Brigade in 2022 at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The brigade is a unit of the Russian Armed Forces.
“He’s not the only Irishman fighting out for Russia now. There are a number of other Irishmen out there and I would ask that they keep them in their thoughts and prayers at this time,” Connolly said.
“I send greetings to all the men and women of the Russian Federation who are actively participating in the special military operation [sic]. Slava Russia.”
The event was organised by the Council of the Russian Compatriots in Ireland and advertised through Facebook on the pages of Eastern European Community Events. It was held in the grounds of the Irish Military Museum in Co Meath.
Commemorating VE Day was once an event that united all the countries of the former Soviet Union, but the war in Ukraine has driven a wedge between those who support Russia’s invasion and those who oppose it.
The organisers banned both the V and Z symbols which were present in previous years and are synonymous with support for the Russian invasion.
Nevertheless, there were few Ukrainian flags in evidence, even though Ukraine lost 8 million people in the second World War. Ukrainians have refused to participate in such events because they view them as an endorsement of the Russian invasion of their country.
For many there, though, the focus was not on Ukraine but on the second World War, which inflicted an unimaginable level of suffering on the peoples of the former Soviet Union.
Between 22 and 27 million people perished, and tens of millions more were injured or subjected to starvation in what was known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.
Hundreds of cars set off in cavalcade from the Ballymount industrial estate to Collon on Sunday morning.
The generation that defeated the Nazis has passed away, but their relatives are determined to remember them.
The highlight of the gathering was the march of the Immortal Regiment, with relatives forming a procession while holding aloft images of their relatives to a booming soundtrack followed by speeches in Russian and patriotic songs.
Katya Martin, originally from Siberia but living in Ireland for 25 years, laid out photographs of her paternal grandfather, three of his brothers, and her maternal grandfather. Only two of them survived the war, the others killed at Stalingrad, Leningrad and Kharkov (now Kharkiv).
“I bring my three children to keep the memory alive and to celebrate the victory of the Soviet Union and all the other nations that took part in the second World War,” she said.
“We are happy to keep the memory alive because we knew the live witnesses to what happened. I was seven when my grandfather died. We are the generation that have to pass it on to our generation so that their sacrifice was not in vain.”
Ainese Butkald, from Latvia, was tearful remembering her Russian grandfather who died in 1967 before she was born. He survived the Winter War in Finland of 1939/40 and ended up fighting in the Far East at the end of the war. “This is very emotional for us, we carry them in our heart.”
Maksimas Cekranovas, a Lithuanian from a Russian family, had photographs of his four grandparents and a cabinet full of medals laid out with a Russian flag in front. “Today reminds everyone who lost their lives and gave their lives for our freedom and we are trying to celebrate and remember what they did for us and not make the same mistakes again.”
