Over 6,000 people have pledged to house Ukrainian refugees in their homes once they arrive in Ireland. 

The General Secretary of the Irish Red Cross said that he was “bowled over” by the generosity of Irish people and said it had far surpassed their response to the crisis in Syria: 

“We built that register of pledges for the Syrian refugees when they came here back in 2016,” Liam O’Dwyer recalled in an interview with Lunchtime Live. 

“And we were delighted to get a response of a thousand offers over a period of a few months. Whereas last night our database got overloaded and we had to stop it!” 

The team responding to the pledges is small but extremely dedicated and they are working through the applications as fast as they can:

“When a pledge is made, we have a team here - at the moment it’s manned by three people and the Web Summit staff very generously - and what they are doing is phoning all the pledgers,” Mr O’Dwyer explained. 

“And the point of that really is just to get a sense of what the property is like, to get a sense of how long the property is going to be available for because that’s an issue. 

“And then once that is done, we then have a call to the property to see, to check that it is as they say on the tin. 

“And after that there’s obviously the matching of a Ukrainian refugee with the family and the property involved.” 

27th February 2022. Lviv Train Station, Ukraine. Desperation grows at Ukraine border as more than half a million refugees flee war - Copyright: Bel Trew/The Credit: Independent/Alamy Live News

Often people will ask for a certain type of refugee, whether that is a woman around the same age as the owner of the property or a young family. The Red Cross is used to such requests and do their best to facilitate them: 

“All of these things can be said, it’s not unreasonable for the person who is offering their accommodation, particularly shared accommodation, to say what they need and we’re then aware of that,” Mr O’Dwyer continued. 

“So when we’re doing a matching, we know what we’re matching with what. So that actually is important.” 

One individual who is keen to do his bit is Malcolm in Waterford, he called Newstalk to explain why he signed up: 

“My wife and I were just discussing it this morning about whether or not there’s something that we could do,” he said. 

“We have a reasonably large property and three spare bedrooms - two of which are en suite. 

“So I’m sure it would be ideal for a family of sorts.” 

Refugees wait to board trains and buses at Przemysl station, six days after the start of Russia's attacks on Ukraine, March 1, 2022, in Przemysl, Poland. Picture by: Bryan Smith/ZUMA Press Wire.

Another listener, Helena, has already found a family and is expecting them to arrive imminently: 

“I just really couldn’t stand idly by and we’re lucky enough to have the space,” she said. 

“It was the right thing to do. We’re very lucky because my daughter was actually in Hungary at the time, she gave me a website… and we matched ourselves with a Ukrainian family. 

“We’ve had a lot of interaction back and forth and we’re prepared to have them for as long as it takes.”

Main image: Refugees from Ukraine arrive at Medyka border fleeing the Russian invasion, 05-03-2022. Picture by: Piero Cruciatti/Alamy Live News