In late August 1989 I travelled to Czechoslovakia by train via East Germany to witness the 21st anniversary of the 1968 Prague Spring. People spoke about the beauty of Prague but few Irish people had travelled there throughout the whole of the 1980s.

Czechoslovakia was one of the most repressive and closed of all the Soviet satellites. Following the Prague Spring, when Czechoslovak students had nearly toppled the Soviets with a non-violent uprising, a new Soviet “Brezhnev Doctrine” came into force, stipulating that the Soviet Union would intervene in any country where socialism was threatened.

The Russian tanks rolled in, Moscow installed hardliners and thousands were rounded up, including future Czech president and poet, Vaclav Havel. Thus began two decades of Czechoslovak stagnation.

By August 1989, the people of communist central Europe were becoming excited by the changes coming from the Kremlin. After Brezhnev’s dead hand, Gorbachev was opening up the possibility of a freer press, opposition parties, reform and a modicum of freedom.

In practical terms the shift was evidenced by Hungary opening the Iron Curtain at the border to Austria. This allowed East Germans to drive their Trabants into Hungary and then on to West Germany where they could get automatic citizenship. Emboldened, some Czechoslovaks took........

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