Tears and Laughter

remembering Finbar, Cooper, and Dmitry

I don’t remember if the go-around started with tears or laughter, but I remember there were both, and we needed them all.

Orla had come to us, asked if we could host a documentary showing. The documentary was an Irish television production about her brother, Finbar, who had been killed by Russian mortar fire while fighting the invasion in eastern Ukraine. He was part of an anarchist unit trying to stop the advance at Bakhmut. Three of them went out one day and didn’t come back. The family got the message back in Acaill that he was missing, but didn’t yet know that meant he was gone. Years earlier they had found out—a long time after he’d gone over—that Finbar was fighting in Rojava. He’d come back safely. Earlier in his life, he’d risked himself numerous times trying to stop the construction of a pipeline off the western coast of Ireland. The family had gotten used to it. They hoped for the best and tried not to worry too much.

Finbar Cafferkey