"I'm definitely a half full person, always trying to see the good in things, always trying to focus on the positive." Adi Roche was characteristically cheery speaking to Ryan Tubridy about her work as an activist and about the lasting devastation of the Chernoble disaster. Adi explained to Ryan how she first felt called to help with this cause.
"I got activated through the kind of non-violent direct action movement of the time. Really during the time of the height of the cold war when East and West were… threatening mutual annihilation, we were like the piggies in the middle, small island nation, what could we do, but we could be a beacon of hope."
Adi became involved in organizing activities across Munster to protest the visit of then US president Ronald Reagan due to his stance on nuclear power, but that, of course, pre-dated the activity she would become best known for.
"Today is the 32nd anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster and the consequences of that are really forever… A non-official experiment went radically wrong. The proper trained personnel weren't there. They were trying to see if they cut off the cooling system to the reactor, what would actually happen, but what happened was a disaster."
The lid was blown off the reactor, spewing 7km of radioactive material into the environment. 70% rained down upon non-nuclear neighbouring country Belarus. Initially, dozens died, but 45,000 died later when trying to save the remaining 97% of the material within the plant from being released. "They are my heroes," said Adi, who has started a campaign, 'I will not forget you', to pay tribute to the lives and messages of those brave people.
"This is not about giving us money even though we'd love to get the money as well, but it's about the gesture of solidarity because Chernobyl is forever. It's cross-generational… We'll never know the full extent of the damage to the human genetics, to the land, to the water, the air, we will never know."
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