Peace walk and candlelight vigil in support of Ukraine takes place in Carlow town this evening

A ‘peace walk’ and candlelight vigil in support of the people of Ukraine is taking place in Carlow later.

People will gather at the gates of Carlow College St. Patrick’s to walk in silence through the town centre.

One of the organisers Annette Fox has been telling KCLR News; “This evening we’ll see a walk starting at Carlow College, at about twenty past six people will gather there and they’ll walk in silence in solidarity with the people of Ukraine down as far as the Liberty Tree, the fountain, with candles, candles will be provided and at the Liberty Tree then there will be some singing, a couple of small poems, the Bishop will be there, he’s going to be saying something, I will be speaking and a few other people but it’s very much just a show of solidarity”.

She adds that a large crowd’s expected; “I’m getting lots of feedback on social media in particular as well as calls and bumping into people in the street and so on, it looks like it’s going to be really, really well attended it certainly has been shared far and wide and I know there are people coming from other counties and from other areas and I think what has captured the imagination as well is the fact that while this is a show of solidarity with Ukraine, it’s also a show of solidarity with people who are fleeing war and injustice regardless”.

And Ms Fox says there doesn’t seem to be any fall-off in the level of support from the first days of the war; “This isn’t something that’s going to go away, I think that we are in this for the long haul and I would hope that the welcome continues to be the same over the next months and however long the crisis is going to continue, certainly I haven’t seen any waning at the moment; in fact we have 49 refugee families, Ukrainian refugee families, who have arrived in Carlow at the moment and certainly people are open-heartedly offering support”.

Meanwhile, details of other ways of supporting can be found here