A Castlerea bus driver, his daughter and a team of volunteers have spent their St Patrick's Day making the final leg of their trip to Zamość in Poland, near the Ukrainian border.
Aidan Geraghty and his team set off with a school bus full of aid from Castlerea in Co Roscommon on Tuesday.
"It feels amazing, absolutely amazing, the people out here are in need and we'll do our little bit to help," Mr Geraghty told RTÉ News from the bus, which had just pulled up at a distribution centre in Zamość.
"It couldn't have happened without the generosity of all of the people at home," Mr Geraghty said.
Aid was donated and packed up at Ballybrit Race Track in Galway.
Mr Geraghty said what they brought was "need specific to the area", and ranges from wheelchairs, clothes, duvets, blankets, food and medical supplies.
The team now hope to bring Ukrainian refugees to Ireland or elsewhere in Europe on board the bus, although UK visa requirements are proving a headache.
"They are hopefully going to have some passengers for us to bring back tomorrow or the next day, it may not be all back to Ireland ... depending on where they want to go, so we are going to give them a lift and help them out.
"We have 57/58 seats in total so we can potentially bring back 50 people in total to maybe other European countries, it would be lovely to bring them back to Ireland but there is a big problem, we can't go back through the UK because of the visa situation and a lot of the ferries are full ... so it's a huge problem for people who want to get to Ireland that way," Mr Geraghty said.
"We're going to do our best for people ... but we have to be back for school on Monday, this is a school bus, the Glenamaddy school bus," Mr Geraghty said.
As for being in Zamość for St Patrick's Day, Mr Geraghty said they had "heard a small rumour that there was Guinness not too far away ... so we might drown the shamrock just yet, we won't let the side down."
Nora Staunton, from Westport in Co Mayo is spending her St Patrick's Day in Goma in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where she works as a Senior Protection Officer in the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
"Unfortunately I can't celebrate it very much today, and I Iove St Patrick's Day when I'm at home... but for us we'll be working," Ms Staunton told RTÉ News.
Eastern DRC has been in and out of conflict for more than two decades and there are currently multiple armed groups operating throughout the region.
It has led to more than 5.6 million people fleeing their homes and becoming internally displaced within DRC, and the UNHCR works to support those people and the local communities hosting them.
"The big challenge for Congo and for us is that this situation has been going on for so long ... it tends to be forgotten, and of course that's understandable with so much going on in the world, but the needs are huge," Ms Staunton said.
"(St Patrick's Day) is a moment to step back and say as an Irish person and as part of the community abroad: What values are we demonstrating? What are we standing for? What is our contribution as the Irish to peace, to justice and to human rights in the wider world?
"So that is the link that I would make on a day like today, when I cannot celebrate in other ways to mark St Patrick's Day," Ms Staunton said.
Ms Staunton said that her nieces and nephews are taking part in the parade in Westport today.
"So I'll be looking forward to hearing back from them, and I know there is great excitement because it has been so low key obviously over the last two years at home with Covid, so I am sure there are going to be great celebrations today," Ms Staunton said.
"And of course I have told everyone in the office it's St Patrick's Day, so they are all looking for green," Ms Staunton added.
