The story of Mary with child

Dear Editor,

If a mother and child came to your door in the middle of the countryside on a cold winter’s night, in a downpour, wet through to the skin, their car having broken down, would you not usher them in, sit them by the fire and make them a cup of tea? Would you not go further and give them a bed for the night and try the following day or for couple of days to get their car fixed?

This is the story of Ukrainian families and children, raining not rain but fire, bombs and brimstone in the middle of this cold winter’s night. This is 2022; let’s not repeat the story of Mary with child on Christmas night when they sought shelter at the inn and could find only a cold empty stable, but instead open our hearts and our doors and sit them by the fire of life and warmth and welcome. Let us truly be the island of a thousand welcomes that we proclaim so proudly and open the doors to the hundreds or possibly thousands of homes with a spare room or empty or mostly empty rooms in them in the Avondhu area alone.

Let us not wait for someone else to begin but begin ourselves today and now.

Kevin T Finn, Kingston Close, Mitchelstown.