Professor Christopher Fitzpatrick:

On the subject of the arts, I had the great privilege of meeting with the young Ukrainian actor who was attacked on the streets of Dublin when they came over here last year to perform Translations, the Brian Friel play they presented in the Abbey in Ukrainian. I met him last October. He is back in Ukraine. I think the then Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, met him on a visit to Kyiv subsequent to returning. I went to see him perform on stage in Kyiv, and what he said to me through a translator was that, in fact, the arts are really important. They are a form of defiance and solidarity, and also a form of inspiration to the people of Ukraine.

Life goes on relatively normal. Children go to school, cinemas run and the theatre runs, and it is part of that solidarity and self-healing. The arts are making a hugely important contribution to that.