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On an emotional return to her adopted childhood summer home of Roscrea, there was only one thing on Svetlana Tikhanovskaya’s mind.
The opposition Belarusian leader, who was parachuted out of her troubled country as a child to spend summers with the Deane family in Raheens, outside Roscrea town, said that approaching the host family’s home for the first time in 17 years had sparked her craving for the local “potato salad” mixture.
The welcome embrace from her hosts Henry and Marianne Deane was a far cry from the threat of detention faced by Tikhanovskaya in her native country which is under the rule of President Alexander Lukashenko whose election victory last year is widely accepted to have involved substantial levels of fraud.
After her husband Sergi Tikhanovskaya was detained last year on charges of preparation of mass disorder, “Sviata”, as she is referred in the Deane household, was exiled after replacing her husband as a candidate after he was prevented from running in last year’s presidential election in Belarus.
Emotional reunions
It may have been a day for emotional reunions, however the presence of Tikhanovskaya’s personal security guards, supported by gardaí and representatives from the Department of Foreign Affairs, indicated just how serious they take her safety.
President Lukashenko’s power reach was displayed for the world to see last May when he had his military force a Ryanair plane in mid-air to detour and land in order to detain Belarus opposition activist and journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, Sofia Sapega.
Two black Mercedes vans with black tinted windows ferried Tikhanovskaya to Raheens.
About half a dozen suited and booted personal security guards remained close to her at all times, as each surveyed the rural hinterland for anything that might have interrupted the peaceful summer birdsong emanating from the trees planted around the Deane’s home.
As Tikhanovskaya and her Irish family engaged privately indoors, her personal security guards were posted both inside and outside the ivy-covered two-storey property.



Belarusian Svetlana Tikhanovskaya embraces Marian Deane in Roscrea, Co Tipperary on a visit to her home. Photograph: Liam Burke/Press 22


Henry and Marian Deane founded the Chernobyl Lifeline charity in the 1990s, organising summer breaks for hundreds of Belarusian children with local families, following the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, as Belarus emerged from the Soviet Union.
Tikhanovskaya was around 12 when she first arrived on the Deane’s doorstep, the same summer Lukashenko rose to power.
Blissful memories of picnics
The Belarus mother of two recounted blissful memories of picnics with the Deanes involving minerals, biscuits and crisps, and trips to Knockshigowna Hill — where seven counties are visible from the summit on a clear day.
Embracing her Irish guardians she said: “I recognise everything, it’s as if it was just a year ago. I’ve got what I wanted now, I can’t describe this feeling, because (the Deane family) were always in my heart.”
“I always felt here that I was a loved person, these people took care of me, it’s a feeling of overwhelmed emotions.”
The Deanes have remained in close contact with their Belarusian “daughter” via social media throughout her Joan of Arc like political journey.
The Irish couple who have made several “nervous” trips to Belarus over the years where they were monitored by authorities, and said the threat from Lukashenko to his own people is very real.
“I took a call the other day from a girl who is very very anxious because her photograph was taken in a group of diaspora in Lithuania with Sviata, and now the photograph has been seen so she is afraid the KGB will come knocking on her door, because all of her friends have been taken away,” Mr Deane told The Irish Times.
“This girl also came here for many years so it is frightening for everybody. Lukashenko has shown that nobody is out of reach, when he can send up a fighter jet and take down a plane load of innocent people, just to take one away.
“Even here in Roscrea, we are not out of Lukashenko’s range, because he is a dictator, a despot, a bad person generally, and no one here wants something to go wrong on their watch, so we are a bit nervous.”
Locals however, seemed unfazed by it all; children played hop scotch in the afternoon sunshine, ladies walked their dogs, groceries were ferried from the local shop to neighbouring homes.
Gordon Green, 68, who was strimming a field nearby, said: “I used to look after some of the Belarus children around 2001, and we stopped around 2014, we would have two boys or a boy and a girl come to us at a time”.
“A lot of people from the town would have looked after them. We’d take them shopping to Portlaoise or to Limerick, or to the coast, and they were amazed with the toy shops and the McDonalds outlets.”
Terrible cost
Marian Deane said they remained confident that Tikhanovskaya would lead the opposition to power: “She will, and now that the weather is getting warmer there, they will be back on the streets marching, even though it is of a terrible cost to themselves”.
“If the protestors are arrested the torture they are put through is horrific. The men are raped with batons, it’s so frightening,” she said.
Henry Deane remarked: “A little girl I spoke to yesterday said that her neighbour went out to buy some milk and was picked up by the police and was never seen since, this is a common occurrence”.
Tikhanovskaya is due to meet with the Taoiseach and Minister for Foreign Affairs on Thursday, to further garner support for her campaign to rid Belarus of President Lukashenko.
“Ireland is very supportive to the Belarusian plight, and for many years we have had a very close relationship between both countries, because after Chernobyl, Ireland was one of the country’s that took out the children from Belarus, and this connection has not been lost,” Tikhanovskaya said.
“Now that Belarus is suffering because of violence and tortures from the regime, of course, Ireland is very vocal about us, and we will raise more questions with the Irish government about how else Ireland can be helpful in our revolution.”