Come Fly With HAC

Learning to fly… St Patrick’s NS FRI13JUNE25

s with any busy international airport, it was a little crazy down at St Patrick’s National School today.

And that’s because everybody was flying off to their favourite spots all over Ukraine, from Kharkiv to Lviv, from Kyiv to Odesa.

With a quick stopover in Coolnagreina, of course.

All these happy young holidaymakers just had to get through security first. And then Crimea for The Bubble Show, Ivano-Frankivsk for the Dream Letters Station, the Odesa Film Festival, Lviv’s sweet factory, Kharkiv’s science lab, Zaporizhzhia’s cossack school, Petrykivka’s folk art magic before, finally, some duty free lunch.

Yep, this Greystones school that has welcomed so many Ukrainian students into their classes and their hearts wanted to give these displaced children a taste of going home, something that many would clearly love to do in the real world.

Departure this morning was 9.30am, with a flight time of just over two hours, the weather forecast sunny with a chance of joy.

And this was indeed, as the poster said, a flight to remember, with each class being led through those security gates before heading on a journey through the school’s various recreations of and nods to Ukraine’s rich history and cultural identity.

Taking pride of place in the main hall was a tribute to the world’s largest plane, the Mriya (meaning ‘Dream’), this magnificent 6-engine airlift cargo aircraft having been destroyed at an airfield near Kyiv by Russian occupants in February 2022. Ukraine has recently announced plans to rebuild this symbol of the country’s pride.

Not sure what Tony The Tiger from Kellogg’s Frosties was doing there, but hey, he was a hit with the kids too.

Well done to all those involved in what turned out to be a sunny day in more ways than one.

You can find out more about St Patrick’s National School here, and check out the local Ukrainian story here.

Once again, more about St Patrick’s National School here, and check out the local Ukrainian story here.