Return journey from Galway to Russia - with love

ONE of Galway’s best loved teachers paid a return visit to the classroom last week, coming out of retirement briefly to celebrate his old school’s ongoing support for the To Russia with Love charity.Máirtín Ó Dúbhghaill from Cois fharraige - who retired from St Patrick’s National School in the city last summer after almost 40 years teaching - was on hand to welcome the founder of the charity, Debbie Deegan, to Galway.Mr Ó Dúbhghaill has spent the last ten years spearheading the school’s fundraising efforts for To Russia with Love, which provides invaluable support to 150 children in the Hortlova orphanage, 250 miles from Moscow.Speaking to The Connacht Tribune, Mr Ó Dúbhghaill said that having now visited the orphanage himself on six occasions, he has seen first-hand the changes that have been made there, due in large part to the money raised in Galway through annual fundraising campaigns.“It is a completely different world now and to see the difference in these children’s lives, it is phenomenal. It does me so much good to see these kids and just how much they have come on,” he said.The project at Hortlova became central to the lives of Máirtín’s pupils at St Patrick’s as he kept them fully informed of everything he saw when he went to visit the children and ensured they knew their carol singing on Shop Street every Christmas made a huge difference to the orphanage.“I would ...