More than two years have passed since I started learning English at the Migrant Centre at Nano Nagle Place in Cork city. It is an old Catholic convent, which is more than 250 years old.

I’m now close to making my old dream come true – to speak English fluently.

I had done four previous courses in the past at home in Ukraine, but every time I had struggled due to lack of speaking practice.

Our English tutor here, Fabrice Fortune, teaches us English, as well as singing in English, which helps us improve our pronunciation and immerse ourselves in the new cultural environment of Cork.

But now, I would like to tell you a story about another dream of mine, which also came true here at Nano Nagle Place.

Family story

My grandfather Petro Potapenko was born in the village of Voloske in the region of Dnipropetrovsk in Ukraine. It is 20km south of the large city of Dnipro.

My grandfather was enlisted in the army and took part in many battles of World War I. He was enrolled in the Russian Empire’s Expedition Corpus which travelled around the world before it arrived in Marseilles. He and other Ukrainian soldiers fought together with their French counterparts against the German army. One of them was his childhood friend Stephan Morar.

The journey took them inland from their native village of Voloske through the cities of Dnipro, Moscow, Irkutsk (Military training camp) and Port Arthur. Then, there was the sea route: Port Arthur, the Yellow sea, Singapore, Colombo, Mumbai, the Red Sea, Port Said, and finally Marseilles.

A lot of Ukrainians from Voloske and other places in Ukraine were involved in that military expedition.

My grandfather was wounded in the leg during the ferocious Battle of the Somme in 1916 in France, and spent a lot of time in........

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