The saying “everybody is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day” applies even to Ukraine, where there may be as few as 30 Irish people in a nation of 46 million.
What’s the attraction to the holiday in Kyiv? Well, March 17 has always been a good day to crowd Kyiv’s Irish pubs and celebrate a holiday that started as a religious holiday, then evolved into a feast and later a secular celebration of Ireland’s culture. Now, for many, the holiday embraced the world over is an occasion to drink green-tinted beer. Indeed, in order to fill Kyiv’s Irish pubs – such as the Golden Gate, O’Briens and Belfast – it took more than Irish alone. British, Ukrainians and others joined the fun for there to be a big crowd.
“British people do attend this event. It’s another chance to get to the pub,” admits Nick Cotton, DTZ real estate managing director and a citizen of Great Britain, a neighbor with whom the Irish have a close – but also conflict-ridden and bloody – history.
While thousands of kilometers from home, Irish and British communities in Ukraine are even closer – and indistinguishable to many outside of these communities. The War of Independence, which led to the national independence of most of the island in 1922, is becoming a more distant memory all the time. Northern Ireland, of course, remains part of the United Kingdom.
So what brings the Irish and British to Ukraine? For some of the same reasons as all other foreigners – great opportunities, in both their personal and professional lives. They find beauty in Ukraine’s chaos, a relief, many say, from scripted British and Irish lives.
And they bring with them their love of pub culture and sports. They also bring a strong sense of civic and commercial involvement, with members in the Lions Club International, the American and British chambers of commerce, the British Business Club and other groups.
Pragmatism may be one of the most distinctive features of Irish and British nationals in Ukraine. “I can’t pick a single thing in Ukraine that irritates me more than, for instance, in Spain,” said Terry Pickard, a group chairman for NaiPickard commercial real estate services.
Irish in Ukraine
In the early 1990s, Ireland was one of the major early investors in independent Ukraine’s economy and their citizens among the first to explore the newly opened market. Irish businesspeople opened duty-free shops in the airports and taught the natives the joys of drinking Guinness beer. Today there are roughly six Irish-themed pubs in Kyiv. But only one, at Boryspil Airport, is Irish-owned.
Despite their tiny numbers, Irish are heavy hitters in Ukraine, and include business owners, top executives, educators and representatives of international organizations among their ranks. And they are tightly linked with British nationals.
“We still love to tease British people, but they are my best friends in Ukraine,” said Richard Creagh, an Irishman and executive vice president of Ukraine International Airlines, which used to be co-owned by an Irish company. “If an Irish rugby team won championships over a British one, many Irishmen used to say they wouldn’t care if they lost the rest. We overcame that. Ukraine right now is like Ireland 50 years ago, and I hope it also will overcome its grudges against Russia.”
Creagh, who arrived in Ukraine 17 years ago, overcame daunting challenges to make the airline profitable for the last decade.
“We were trying to expand business in a shrinking economy until 2000,” Creagh said. “Bureaucracy and the lack of a customer-oriented culture were major issues. We easily overcame one. However, Ukrainian bureaucracy came to be something very difficult to fight.”
Even today, the airline business in Ukraine faces many pitfalls. “There are only 9 million air travelers in Ukraine per year versus a 46 million population, while in Ireland, for example, it’s 13 million versus a 4.5 million population,” Creagh said. Strict European Union visa policies keeping out Ukrainians, as well as Ukraine’s lack of tourist promotion, lie at the root of the travel problem, he added.
Seamus Holmes, an Irishman who spent the last decade in Ukraine and heads Kievrianta’s Kyiv Duty Free Shop, doesn’t see anything in particular to complain about in Ukraine.
“In terms of business, great connections with local partners is a must. Otherwise, it’s swimming against the tide. However, I say to those who complain about doing business in Ukraine: if you don’t like it, just don’t come,” Holmes said.
Holmes said the last two years in Ukraine were “a freefall” in which no one knew when they would hit bottom. “However, unpredictability in Ukraine keeps you going and opens opportunities. In Ireland, it’s not possible to move left or right. Everything is so staged and stable,” Holmes adds.
His colleague Ross McMahon, an Irishman and operating manager of Kievrianta, felt comfortable in Ukraine from the first moment three years ago. However, he is not happy that the nation is seen as a destination for tourists “seeking cheap sex and cheap alcohol.”
British in Ukraine
Many of the estimated 500 British people in Ukraine actively participate in St. Patrick’s Day celebrations in Ukraine. “We are very close. It’s the cultural proximity that brings us together. And Kyiv has no gated foreign communities whatsoever,” said Gerald Bowers, general director of the British Business Club in Ukraine. The organization brings together the British and Ukrainian business communities.
Extortion, corruption and bureaucracy are ever-present, but Bowers said he has not paid a bribe in his eight years in Ukraine. “Foreigners have to realize that bureaucracy for Ukrainians is not a problem at all. Bureaucracy here is self-perpetuating,” he adds.
“Investors coming into market are not too concerned about the color of politics, they just don’t like uncertainty,” said British national Pickard, who came to Ukraine 18 years ago. He clearly remembers Ukraine with “no banks and no money transfers.”
“I am impressed with Ukrainian business ethics and the level of university graduates who come out of college with language knowledge and math skills, you would not dream to see in the United Kingdom,” said Cotton, the DTZ managing director, who also spent the last decade in Ukraine.
“Without putting political spin on it, in the last years we had completely impotent government in Ukraine. Now it will be some form of direction. There will be mistakes, it’s inevitable, however, there will be direction,” Cotton said. He still, like many of his compatriots, finds beauty in Ukraine’s chaos.
“Britain right now is the most controlled nanny state,” he added.
While some in the expatriate community stick to themselves, others dive into Ukrainian life with gusto.
“I have a driver, but I take public transportation, going to student bars and have visited real Ukrainian homes, ” said Phil Billing, executive director of British International School, which has some 300 students. “Where else in the world can you watch ballet or an opera performance of such quality for 4 pounds, like in Ukraine? It’s amazing.”
Will they stay for good? Not likely, many Irish and British expatriates said, who noted the difficulties of living in Ukraine as a retiree.
“I don’t want to be buried here,” Cotton said. “Graveyards are not very nice in Ukraine. In the United Kingdom, they are.”
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Bugayova can be reached at [email protected].
Read also ”Ambassador’s message to British community in Ukraine: ‘If we can’t find you, we can’t help you’ by Nataliya Bugayova.
