Shadowing Practice: Ireland has a serious Russia problem - Learn English Speaking with Video
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So we've just arrived in the west coast of Ireland.
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We're actually driving at a really high speed right now
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because we've just heard
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that one of the Russian ships is already about to depart from the port carrying over 2,000 tons of raw aluminum.
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That's the material that's being sent to St. Petersburg, that's then being refined into aluminum and apparently sent to Russia's war machine.
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Knowing that these ships are going directly to Russia, absolutely crazy.
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When you think of West Ireland, you think of these peaceful villages, hubs where people sit and chat over a pint of Guinness and the rest of the world seems a million miles away.
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And this could literally be one of the main supply routes for Russia's war machine.
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All right, so we've just arrived now, and it looks like the ship is still here.
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So if we can get this drone up as fast as possible, we can get this shot before it sets sail.
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So let's get this up in the sky.
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Hopefully, we can get a shot of this ship that's about to head off directly to Russia.
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So there it goes, that ship has just left Ireland.
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Its destination, Russia.
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And that is where this story begins.
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In a few days that boat will arrive in St. Petersburg.
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And now the question is simple.
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Why does no one here want to talk about it?
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Over the next few days, we're going to be following this story from beginning to end.
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We're going to track the ships, speak to workers, and confront the politicians.
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We're going to investigate the refinery behind me
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and find out exactly how this quiet corner of rural Ireland
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came connected to a machine raging the largest land war in Europe since World War II.
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Because somewhere between this coastline and Russia lies the truth.
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And I'm here to find out.
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Before I set foot in Ireland, journalists are already digging.
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The Irish Times had traced the entire supply chain to Russia's war machine.
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So, I asked what they found.
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So I've been reading a report looking into this for the last few months.
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What motivated you to investigate this?
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Every other European country exports to Russia have gone way, way down.
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Obviously because of the sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine.
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Our exports to Russia have actually gone up.
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And that's largely driven by the exports of Illumina.
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Why do you think there hasn't been more pressure to even investigate this from politicians?
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I suppose the governments are looking for the path of least resistance.
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I'm going to be heading to the west coast of Ireland, literally as soon as we finish this interview.
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Do you think there's any gaps, anything that I'm missing, anything that I should focus on?
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One thing you could do that we never quite got there is get a sample of Illumina from Onish.
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Oh.
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and compare it to a piece of a cruise missile.
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We actually sourced a piece of a cruise missile which landed in Ukraine.
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One scientist told us that it was possible to compare them and get a chemical match.
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So if you could find a way of doing that, it's a powder.
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So maybe I could ask for a souvenir the next time I'm there.
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Exactly, yeah.
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Okay, well, wish me luck, I guess.
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Yeah, good luck.
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Right, so the company that owns this refinery called Rusal it's a Russian company
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and I have reached out for weeks for a comment from this company.
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I've phoned reception, I phoned all the landline numbers and I've got absolutely nothing.
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So we're going to do it the old school way.
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We're going to drive in, knock on the door and see if anyone's home.
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That looks like it requires driving down this kind of quiet shady entrance.
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The closer you get the more CCTV there is, the more cameras there are, the more signs there are warning you not to film like we're doing now, warning you not to show what's going on.
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You know, what's going on here has been so hidden from the public.
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I think it's within the public interest to film.
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And look, pulling in right into the main entrance, the sign is in Russian.
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And just this morning, another ship left this port about two hours ago with 2,300 tons of raw material directly to St. Petersburg.
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And three hours ago, there was a huge missile attack on the center of Kiev.
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And just here, apparently neutral Ireland, you've got Russian signs everywhere.
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And of course, they're not trying to hide it.
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Why would they when local politicians are hiding it for them, when local media are hiding it for them?
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And honestly, this isn't even the craziest part.
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I just went on the website for this refinery, the main website, and it's in Russian.
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It's a .ru website.
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So this is the main entrance to Russel to the refinery.
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Well, there's a car stopping right now that kind of looks like it's following us.
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Pulled up and just stopped right behind us, which is weird.
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And you do have this feeling like you're being followed everywhere here.
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And it is owned by Russians.
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And isn't this weird?
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What do you think?
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You think this is weird?
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Right, anyway, we're going to head out of here because this is pretty shady.
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So that car has just stayed there the whole time and the car that pulled up behind it stopped as well.
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Very, very, very strange.
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And you know what?
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I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't the last of this that we see as well over the next few days. So this is Foynes.
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It's a village right next to the refinery and it's where most of the workers live.
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It's where most of the workers have a pint after work.
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And as you can see, it's pretty quaint is pretty quintessentially Irish.
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We've got a church, one pub, we've got one of the cost cutters.
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Everything here feels really local, feels really chill, feels really quiet and just feels Irish.
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Feels like the last place you'd expect to find anything to do with Russia.
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After spending the day with locals, we meet a farmer who says that the pollution from Oganish forced him out of his home.
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This was our home.
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We brought up our children here and we loved it.
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It was so quiet.
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Now we know you're here.
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The only people that knew we were here were Aachenish with their pollution.
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The red dust, the caustic that was coming out of Aachenish, all our faces were burned.
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Pat and his wife take me inside their family home, now derelict.
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I've been back, bad memories.
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I was raised here.
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Mina had a happy childhood.
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So I've been emotional.
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It's just, you know, somewhere we have buried this lately at the back of our minds.
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My two girls were born here.
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My dad, my mum, my uncle used to come home from England.
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I always worked on the farm here and I loved it.
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It was simple but to the happy life, you know what I mean?
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Before the horrors of what Agnes did to us.
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My daughter's health, you know, I had a lot of miscarriages so...
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Richard Noble called by Agnes, called by the Lumina factory and everyone has turned their back on us, politicians.
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We can't even get stories covered from this area any more publicly.
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They have everything shut down.
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The control that this industry has, the Russian industry has...
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And our government.
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Our government allows them to have that.
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You know, the Russians are running this government regarding English.
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The government is leaving our family and other families die in the area, right?
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because these people have to be looked after, the oligarch, the Taoiseach Leo Vradker
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visited Anish alumni on at least two occasions to ask them what more can we do for you?
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Their own Irish citizens are left to die because they want to be with the Russians.
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The Russian company sitting right in the middle of Ireland, south west of Ireland.
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Why?
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What comes onto our farm is definitely inside in the bullets and ammunition that's going into Ukraine and that's for sure.
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If you could describe in a word what would you describe it as?
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Destruction.
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Destruction, devastation.
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Okay, so that was pretty heavy having that conversation.
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I had no idea.
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Just the extent of devastation that this refinery has caused, not just, again, to the people in Ukraine and politically to Ireland,
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but to the farmers in this area, to the environment.
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Again, you think of rural Ireland, you think of beautiful clean air, beautiful clean water, rolling hills.
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You'd see this red, scorched earth.
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On the way out of Pat's farm I get a call from Kevin Collins.
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He's an independent Irish filmmaker who made a documentary exposing the environmental catastrophe around the refinery.
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He took this incredible footage of the red mud, the groundwater and the scar on the landscape.
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Kevin took me up a hill to see it for myself.
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So when did you first discover this thing?
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Summer last year.
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I went on Google Maps and I couldn't believe what I saw.
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The red dust is on people's cars, it can erode paint.
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There's people's, their houses are covered in dust, and there was a storm here like a couple of years ago
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and they had to send out teams of people to clean people's houses.
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And you know the red dust is toxic, so for many decades that dust was just blowing everywhere.
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For the journalism that you're doing now, linking this back to the Russian war machine, it was really about the environment.
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Literally arriving here for the first night.
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This is the last place you'd expect to see anything like this.
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It's honestly the strangest thing is that I've come directly from the front lines of Ukraine on this trip.
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My luggage still has the press.
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Where Russian missiles and drones were launching every day.
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And knowing that it didn't just come from Russia, literally parts of them could have come from here.
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We have to stay here for ages until we figure out who is making money from all of this
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and how this has gone on for four years.
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So it's day two here, and I think we should focus on finding the local politicians here, the councillors and the ministers, the people that have defended that refinery for years.
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Find out why, why they defended that refinery, what their intentions are, and why they've decided to basically turn a blind eye.
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I've emailed a bunch of them, I've called up, I've got nowhere with it.
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However, I've just heard that today, by coincidence, a lot of them are going to be at a farming show, an agricultural show.
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It's called the Newcastle West Show.
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And it's the kind of place I would never normally be going to interview politicians, right?
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It's where people show off their livestock and their latest farming equipment.
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But it seems to be the only place where these politicians are going to be and going to be contactable.
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So I'm going to hope that they're there and hope
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that we can find them and speak to someone about what's going on here.
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So it's a little bit unorthodox going somewhere like this, but...
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From the point of view of Aachenish, people actually don't know who actually owns it.
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You can't paint Ireland all with one brush.
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We're a neutral country.
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We're a peaceful country.
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We can actually come out and say that we're against everything that they're doing.
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Yeah.
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We don't have the capability of taking on any of these people because in the point of view of an economic war, they have the power to hurt everyone in this country.
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So as much as we can go out and we say that we're against what they're doing, we don't have the power here, if I was to be honest, as a business person.
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If you're in business and you've got a product that's wanted and there's a shortcut, what are they going to do?
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They're going to say, I'm going to try and sell it to you for the highest premium, no matter who you are, it's down to money.
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Who has the buying power?
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But isn't that kind of still being complicit in sort of arms dealing in some ways?
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If it's going to the arms.
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A hundred percent.
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And if it is, it is.
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You have to be very careful in terms of Aachen.
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Basically jobs, to me, jobs are number one.
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And you know, it's unfortunate in terms of the war effort in Eastern Europe.
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But Anish has to continue trading.
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Would you support sanctions being put on that refinery right now?
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No, I wouldn't sanction it because people's livelihoods are on the line here.
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But if it turns out that what's happening here is fueling Russia's war machine murder Ukrainians every day,
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is that not something to include as the morality of what's going on?
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Well, there is always a moral issue.
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There's a moral issue the way Prime Minister Netanyahu is behaving.
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If the refinery was sending materials to Netanyahu, would you say it should be sanctioned?
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I would.
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I'd have problems with Mr Netanyahu.
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Why Netanyahu not Putin?
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Well, they're a Russian company and that's the answer.
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They're supplying Russia.
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OK?
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Yeah.
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If it turns out that that refinery is actually supplying the Russian coal machine, what would your stand for be on it then?
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We love his bet for Enish down here.
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You know, you can bring sanctions and sanctions, but, like, I suppose sometimes you can over-sanction yourself.
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Sometimes national events are beyond our remit here as such.
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Why do you think there haven't been enough politicians calling for, like, a diversification?
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Because Russia's 83% of the custom.
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There's a shortage right now of Illumina.
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Why can't it just go to the rest of Europe or other countries?
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You know, Russia doesn't have to be the only customer.
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We have to hand it to politicians as well that they have busy lives, okay?
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And that's maybe one of the reasons that we all need to be here.
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There's lots of, how will I say, initiative in terms of developing the garden furniture here, for example.
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So we've just heard that Niall Collins is here and I've actually been looking for him for the last few days.
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He's one of the most senior politicians in this part of Ireland, and we've been emailing him incessantly in the last few days, nonstop.
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We've been sending him text messages.
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And what he said most specifically is that he doesn't believe that any sanctions should be placed on the refinery, regardless of who's running it.
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So Niall hasn't answered my calls.
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Let's see if he'll answer my questions.
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My name's Caelan.
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I just wanted to chat to you for a sec about today, why you're here today.
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I don't think it should be sanctions.
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I wouldn't get into hypotheticals.
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I really want to get into hypotheticals.
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If the material that's being exported is going to Russia's war machine, missiles and drones, would you endorse sanctions?
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Technically, the ships leaving would become warships in some ways.
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I don't have any real concerns about it.
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Would you say it's concerning the fact it's still predominantly owned by Russians?
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Also, the website is a .re Russian website for the actual refinery there.
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I mean, it still has a clear Russian ownership.
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I drove through there two days ago, and there were signs in Russian all the way through the entrance.
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It's got a very strong Russian ownership.
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There's no Russians working there.
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Why are there signs in Russian, do you think, everyone?
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I don't know.
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No idea?
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I don't know.
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I have no idea.
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Because it's strange.
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We're here in the west of Ireland and there's signs in Russia everywhere.
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Yeah, yeah.
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You don't think it's weird?
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Maybe that's their company policy.
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I don't know.
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This, honestly, explains why the politicians here have been avoiding journalists, have been avoiding my questions in the press, because they don't have any answers.
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On the way out of the Newcastle West Show, I checked the local area to see if there's any other politicians who can speak to me.
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So we're about to go into the offices of Patrick O'Donovan.
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He's one of the most senior politicians in this entire region of Ireland, and I want to ask him why he's defended this refinery.
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He's also recently said that there is no evidence that this is directly connected to Russia's war machine.
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It is not connected to any sort of a war machine.
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We've called and called.
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We haven't got a response yet.
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So we're just gonna see if he's here for an interview.
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There's also a number in here we can call.
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This directly concerns him.
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Let's see.
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Hey, I was wondering if I could arrange an interview with Patrick.
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I'm an Irish reporter here just covering what's happening at Oganish.
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I'm outside the offices.
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I've been trying to call for a few days, but I haven't got any responses.
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You haven't gotten any response from the opportunity.
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Sorry, she'll be the only person who has been here.
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So I've already emailed a few times and called a few times, times, because you know, it seems like perhaps he's avoiding questions about the, uh, about Oganish as well, is that part of what's going on?
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Because I've really tried to get in touch.
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You can email me if you guys are in person, but is that okay?
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Cool, I'll send something over again now, and then if not, I'll come back again tomorrow as well and see if anyone's in here, because it would be great to get a comment.
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It's the biggest story in Ireland right now, and there's no one here, so.
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Okay, thank you.
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Thanks again.
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Yes, see you.
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So they've been closed for a few days for the bank holiday.
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This is the day we're all All the locals have told me that he's in here, but there's no one inside.
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The door is locked.
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There's no one here.
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And it seems like he doesn't want to answer any questions from the media.
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The number one thing that's been happening since I've arrived in this area is avoidance from every single politician, from every single government minister,
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and from anyone who has anything to do with the Russian refinery just down the road from here.
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I wanted Ireland to hear the word Ørhanish, so I started posting.
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Clips of the refinery, the Russian signs, the politicians I confronted in the fields, streets and offices.
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And then the story broke open.
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One clip went viral, then another, then another.
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Millions of views became 10 million in just a few days.
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The story started jumping platforms, flooding timelines, getting clips shared, argued over and suddenly, O'Hannes wasn't some quiet refinery on the Shannon, it was a national scandal.
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Then came the headlines, Irish media, international media, questions in Dublin, statements from the Taoiseach, politicians who had ignored it were suddenly being dragged onto television to explain themselves.
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The Irish government finds itself at at the centre of a growing storm over the activities of Auchenich Illumina.
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Raw material allegedly ending up in Russian weapons.
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The EU seemed to place all the responsibility for examining the claims on Ireland.
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For us it's important that we get the facts straight.
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The Irish government cannot keep beating its chest about support for Ukraine in public
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while in private it's knowingly facilitating the export of Illumina to Russia which is ending up in weapons killing Ukrainians.
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So can you tell me, and be specific, when are you going to stop this pretense and ban the export of Illumina to Russia?
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For years, this place had been hidden in plain sight, and now everyone could see it.
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And then the backlash started.
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Some of the exact same media voices that had almost never touched Ohanish before began mocking my reporting, sneering at my videos, and attacking the messenger.
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And that includes this journalist from RTE News, the exact same state broadcaster, backed by hundreds of millions in public funding from guess who,
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the same government that has covered up the refinery.
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And this was the point.
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My reporting didn't just expose the refinery, it exposed the rot in Irish politics and also media.
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The reaction that we've had has been completely unbelievable.
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It's exploded the story.
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But there's another component to this that was pretty strange.
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When I was in the gas station earlier and I was looking at the local newspapers, the ones that are just circulated in this area around West Limerick, I couldn't see a single thing about this on the front pages.
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Turn to the second page, the third page, and in this entire newspaper, and this is dated the 30th of May, there is literally no mention of the story, the story of the Russian refinery.
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But I had a look and did some digging and I found
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that this newspaper was part of a collection of newspapers that received a portion of a grant up to 5 million euros.
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And that grant was announced by the very minister who's been defending this refinery right from the beginning.
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So I wouldn't be surprised if this is connected.
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If a newspaper takes money from a minister
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and then refuses to talk about one of the biggest stories in the area that the minister has been defending, something doesn't quite add up.
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So what I'd like to do is I'd like to go to the Limerick Leader, their offices are in Limerick tomorrow, and check it out and see what they have to say.
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At the Limerick Leader, one of their senior reporters invited me in to answer my questions.
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I noticed on the weekend when it was on the front page of the Irish Times about Aughanis and on RTE, there wasn't any coverage in the newspaper that you put out this weekend.
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There's lots of fear among TDs here in Limerick about expressing an opinion because
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they don't want their comments to be possibly linked to job losses here in Limerick
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and there could be reaction from the Kremlin.
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I've even done a lot of the quotes in the entities I've even done on this has resulted in very neutral, very down the line comments.
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When you said they're a bit worried about a reaction from the Kremlin, how would you explain that situation?
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Yeah, it would be...
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There's real fears the owner of one of the directors at Orhanish Illumina,
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Oleg, and now he does have links to Vladimir Putin.
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There are genuine fears about rocking the boat with him.
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The consequences for us could be very catastrophic."
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This interview was damning because it explained the silence that locals didn't want to rock the boat, politicians didn't want to rock the boat and local media had learned to be careful.
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Not because the story wasn't serious, but because a shadow over Orkhanesh was enormous.
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Russel, the Kremlin, and one name above it all, Oleg Deripaska.
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He's one of Russia's most powerful oligarchs.
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He's a founder of Russel and a man sanctioned by the West, photographed here next to Putin.
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And this is where the story gets darker.
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Because Orhanish isn't just a refinery in Limerick, it's part of a Russian business empire.
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But the question now is impossible to ignore.
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If Irish Aluma is feeding Russian aluminum, and Russian oligarch money is being pulled into Russia's war economy, then this scandal isn't just about raw materials.
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It's about money, it's about power, fear, and most of all, the price of silence.
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This is why Órheníš stayed quiet for so long, and this is why it had to be dragged into the light.
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I headed back out to meet with Kevin, the independent journalist who's been investigating Órheníš, and get his reaction to the media silence this week.
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I think there's a problem that through various grants and under the guise of digitization,
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even independent newspapers and radio stations get government money.
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There's millions every year in different grants.
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So maybe it's not exactly state-funded media.
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RTE obviously is, but even independent media is funded by the state in some way because they're taking all of these grants.
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And at some level that must be diluting the ability to do the kind of raw journalism that you do.
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Because if you're taking state money, maybe you're not going to be...
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Maybe you're going to talk the state narrative.
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You mentioned when we first arrived that there haven't been many reporters covering this.
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Why do you think that is?
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There seems to be an embargo on anything in the national media, or now in the local media.
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It seems that no one wants to tell the story against Ange, especially since Russell took it over.
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It's absolutely crazy that the silence is deafening now out here, and that's not good.
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And we are now dependent on the likes of Kevin
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and the likes of you
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and the likes of others that's going to come in from
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outside to be able to tell the truth to the world as to what's really going on here.
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When our own have totally turned our back on us.
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Would you describe this situation as a cover-up?
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A cover-up?
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Yes.
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I can't get another name for it.
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They will not upset, as I said, the Russians.
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They won't upset Orkula Paschka.
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They won't upset Rosan.
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On my final day in Limerick, I want to take a step back.
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A step back from the media, from the local politicians, from the story confined to this region.
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And look out at how everything is connected.
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Right, so when you first hear about this story, the whole thing sounds so complicated.
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A refinery in Russia, a train network, weapons manufacturers, the whole thing sounds like a mess.
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So I've mapped out the entire thing, the entire journey.
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And the journey doesn't begin in Russia, it doesn't begin in Ukraine, it doesn't begin the moment a missile is launched.
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It begins here with a rock called bauxite.
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And that is the material at the start of this entire process.
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And it's shipped from places like Brazil and Africa all across the world to refineries that can process it.
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And one of those refineries is just down the road from here in County Limerick.
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It's called Ahanis.
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And that is the center of this whole process.
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So bauxite comes in and alumina comes out.
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And it's the white powder at the center of this story.
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And it doesn't look dramatic.
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It doesn't look like war.
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But that white powder is the beginning of aluminum.
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And aluminum is one of the essential materials for the modern world.
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For aircrafts, for cars, for industry, and for war.
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And that is where this journey begins.
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So a ship gets loaded up with this alumina.
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And it sets sail down the Shannon Estuary.
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It heads east across Europe into St. Petersburg, into ports in Russia, and travels thousands of kilometers inland towards Siberia into these dots on the map,
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smelters where that alumina is turned into high-quality aluminum.
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This is the second transformation, where that rock becomes powder in Ireland and that powder becomes metal in Russia.
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That is exactly where accountability starts to disappear and what moves us right here.
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This company, ASK.
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They then sell to Russian-linked arms manufacturing companies.
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These companies are at the heart of Russia's war machine and this, this is where responsibility gets blurred.
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We've got the Votkinsk machine building plant, this has been directly linked to Iskandir missiles.
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Then we've got the RZMS industry making plant, this has been directly linked to the manufacturing of Kh-101 cruise missiles.
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Ukrainians know these very well.
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We've got another one here in Russia, it's known as the tank giant, they make the T-72s.
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And then finally we've got companies like this, like Kamaz, these make jet engines and aircrafts that are used to bomb civilians every single day a bunch of lovely companies.
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This stuff is the machinery that keeps the war moving.
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And it's exactly why this board matters.
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Because once you start connecting all these stages, the defence starts to sound a lot weaker.
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The defence that this local refinery just supports local jobs.
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And yes, those things matter.
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But they don't answer the most important question.
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Whether what's being produced here in rural Ireland is directly contributing to Russia's war machine.
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And these are the critical questions that no one here seems to want to answer.
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And speaking of that, let's look at the local ownership.
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And look who's running this refinery.
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We've got Oleg here.
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He's one of the managing directors of the entire plant.
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Russian.
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Ochenish isn't some innocent local Irish company that happens to have Russians as its customer.
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Its entire corporate command chain is Russian.
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And Roussel, which is the name of the refinery right here, sits inside a corporate system with some of the most powerful names associated with Russia's war system.
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We've got Evgeny Niktin here.
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We've got Elena Ivanova.
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Anton Ergorov.
404
All pictured together, smiling.
405
They're not really names that most Irish people have ever heard of.
406
They're not really names that match the local area.
407
And this is what makes the entire story so surreal.
408
Because Alhanish is talked about locally here as just an employer.
409
But on another level, it's something else.
410
It's part of a much bigger system that stretches from Ireland to Moscow, from Moscow to Siberia, and from here to the supply chain of the country,
411
waging the largest land war in Europe since World War II.
412
And speaking of locally, let's move to the Irish politicians here.
413
And this goes all the way to the top.
414
The Taoiseach here, basically the Prime Minister of Ireland, has said that sanctions on this refinery would hurt Europe more than it would hurt Moscow.
415
And again, where's the evidence?
416
Where's the evidence that something like this would hurt European partners would hurt Ireland more than it would hurt this supply chain?
417
Because looking at it from a distance, it seems pretty obvious that what's sent here from Ireland is critical to Russia's war machine.
418
Eleven companies here, all sanctioned, reliant on what gets produced on that refinery down the road.
419
And the reason that I put all this together is
420
so we can take a step back for a second and take a look at all this.
421
Because this story isn't really about Illumina.
422
It's not really about bauxite, it's about what happens when everyone can see a chain but nobody wants to be the one to break it.
423
History's got a habit of asking difficult questions long after the paperwork has been filed away.
424
Years from now people are going to look back at this period
425
and ask how so many warning signs were visible at the same time.
426
How the routes all remained open, how the explanations here all somehow remained acceptable, and how this chain remained intact.
427
Zooming out from this map for a second you realize there's a bigger problem.
428
And that is that Ireland is about to take over the EU Council presidency.
429
That means Irish ministers are soon going to help sear Europe's agenda on sanctions.
430
So decisions made around Oganish won't stop here on the Shannon.
431
They'll reach all the way to Brussels and Strasbourg.
432
Before I went to Limerick, I went to the European Parliament to ask MEPs a simple question.
433
Is Europe serious about standing with Ukraine?
434
And why is Illumina still going to Russia?
435
Their answers didn't give him much hope.
436
What do you think should happen to it?
437
Well, I think we should wait to see what the Irish Department of Enterprise reports on this.
438
If it turns out that the aluminum refinery is enabling Russia to...
439
Would you say it should be closed down?
440
If it turns out that it is in any way enabling Russia to win a war, which I believe is illegal,
441
Well then of course I think that that would have to be looked at.
442
But I do understand that that production facility is a vital piece of infrastructure, not just for Ireland but for Europe as well.
443
I wouldn't take a drastic approach.
444
So why do you think there's such a hesitation with it?
445
A due process has to take its course.
446
People have to find out whether it is doing what it's expected of doing or not.
447
There may be an instant explanation, it may be being falsely accused.
448
Before we leave we meet with one last MEP who actually answers the question.
449
So say it turns out through an investigation that the
450
raw materials end up in Russia and are being used to make weapons.
451
What do you think should happen to...
452
We should stop it.
453
I spoke to other MEPs this morning here who are Irish
454
and no one gave me actually an answer like you've just done now.
455
You've basically said if this is a problem we should deal with it and sort it.
456
Everyone kind of skirted around it, but you've actually said probably exactly what needs to be said about it.
457
Why do you think other Irish MEPs
458
or people in media are quite kind of worried about this issue
459
or haven't really been as direct as you're being with how it should be dealt with?
460
Ultimately, at the end of the day, what I'm very conscious of is
461
that there are a thousand plus families whose livelihoods depend on the jobs that they go to.
462
That's really important.
463
But what's also really important is to make sure that there's nothing being produced in Ireland that ends up in a bomb, a tank, an aircraft carrier that's causing deaths.
464
You can.
465
It's our final day in the west coast of Ireland
466
and I get a text from Pat thanking me for the reports
467
that have put Oanish front and centre in the news cycle.
468
He wants to take me to the refinery one more time to show just how bad the air gets
469
when the wind blows west.
470
Yeah, you're going to have air problems tonight like...
471
I can smell it, it's horrible.
472
Yeah, we have that coming up to us.
473
It's raw caustic, it'll burn your skin, you'll feel it When it's on your skin I can smell something.
474
Yes, you treat you start to lose your bridge in trying to breathe
475
That's the way we have been I've even been tired since I've arrived here and felt a bit
476
You get the fatigue and you get muscle aches and you get pains
477
This is where it starts and wearing up in your cream
478
It's a shame
479
that we are now have blood on our hands right for what's happening out there like
480
and I would apologize to those people families out there, but it's out of our hands.
481
We have been fighting to stop this happening here for years.
482
But this government has ensured that it will never stop.
483
It Every one of us gets it.
484
My wife and our daughter gets the same peak.
485
And this is airborne, so it just doesn't stop.
486
It doesn't stop on Alfaro.
487
It travels beyond us and everywhere.
488
We know
489
we're going to lose our life before our time, but we're not going to stop in telling the truth of what is happening to us.
490
They don't frighten us anymore.
491
You stand up for the truth, you stand up for your family and you stand up for the community.
492
And these bullies, we're not frightened of them anymore.
493
As we're leaving West Ireland, I get a call.
494
Someone connected to the refinery had seen my reports, and they didn't want to be identified, but they said they felt guilty.
495
And if this Illumina was helping Russia's weapons chain, they wanted it exposed.
496
So they handed me a second sample.
497
On our first day in Foynes, I'd already obtained one near the refinery under the cover story as someone interested in local industry.
498
Now I had two.
499
Two separate samples, two separate sources, one question.
500
Was this powder from the Shannon helping build Russian weapons?
501
Armed with both, I headed back to Dublin.
502
So, when we last spoke, you mentioned one of the missing pieces to the puzzle was a sample from Bohanis that you suggested, which is a brilliant idea, could be tested against Battlefield debris.
503
I actually managed to get that sample myself inside the refinery.
504
That's incredible.
505
Which was pretty wild.
506
Yeah.
507
I went in and I asked to see what it looks like and then I managed to take a bit.
508
Right.
509
So what I've done is I split it up into two vials.
510
and I was going to give one to you if you want to have it as a sample.
511
This is it.
512
It's actually from the place.
513
What are you...
514
Wow.
515
Can I open it?
516
Yeah, I put it in a glitter bottle with the plastic lid, but if you take it open...
517
You know, I never knew it was a powder, but I never knew it was that fine.
518
It's really fine.
519
Yeah.
520
That's incredible.
521
Thank you so much.
522
Yeah, so, I mean, that was an idea we had of...
523
Could you test this?
524
You know, chemically, if you brought it to a certain lab.
525
I know in Ukraine they have lots of weapons testing labs so they can attribute various war crimes basically to Russia.
526
But we hit a brick wall time-wise and it wasn't clear if it was possible.
527
But it's actually fantastic to get this and see if it is possible to do that.
528
What do you think will happen next with this refinery?
529
Everything's going up so much.
530
It's pretty crazy.
531
We published our story back in the end of March, so like nine weeks ago, and people paid attention.
532
The government announced an investigation, but it's only in the past week or so,
533
or maybe two weeks, that it has really grabbed attention in Ireland, but also internationally.
534
In Europe, you know, there's been a lot of MEPs speaking up, a lot of kind of prominent voices in other countries.
535
So yeah, it's been kind of insane to be honest with you.
536
You are out there reaching an audience that we probably don't reach as well, so that's great as well.
537
It's great that it's getting pick up and that the government is coming under pressure to hopefully investigate a property.
538
Well, it was amazing meeting you.
539
I can't believe this journey has been wild.
540
I didn't expect these twists and turns and for it to go up like this, but let's hope it has a happy ending somehow.
541
Okay thanks and great to meet you thanks for the gift.
542
Well I'll see you through the side.
543
Okay bye.
544
So I thought this would be the end of the film, where the credits start to roll, but this isn't the end.
545
Today there was a vote in Parliament, a vote that looks like it could be the beginning of the end of the Russian ownership of that refinery.
546
Commission report on Ukraine, Amendment 8, who's in favor?
547
Adopted.
548
This, this is the best result that could ever happen with that refinery.
549
Because here no one loses their jobs.
550
The only losers are the people making money from war.
551
And looking back, long before Ahonish became a story connected to this war, it was already story about land, about silence, about power, and it was about ordinary people already being ignored.
552
I went to Ireland with the hope that that sample might just change things.
553
But looking back, it seems like the truth was already enough.
554
Millions of people watched, thousands spoke out.
555
This story isn't over, but the silence around Orhanish, that's breaking.
556
The EU seemed to place all the responsibility for examining the claims on Ireland.
557
When are you going to stop this pretense and ban the export of Illumina to Russia?
558
This is a huge moment.
559
Soon, those ships could stop sailing to Russia.
560
And this didn't happen because one journalist arrived with a camera.
561
It happened because enough good people stood up.
562
There's a line written on what remains of the Berlin Wall.
563
It says, Many small people in many small places doing many small things can alter the face of the world.
564
That wall didn't fall because it became weak.
565
It fell because people became stronger than the fear it held up.
566
For years it looked permanent, armed and protected.
567
Then one day it cracked because people pushed.
568
Orhanesh wasn't just a refinery.
569
It was a wall built of shady supply chains, loopholes and political cowardice.
570
But every wall has its first crack.
571
And maybe it begins here, on a river in Ireland, with a farmer who wouldn't forget, a reporter who wouldn't look away, a worker brave enough to come forward,
572
and a politician willing to put principles first.
573
Because this refinery is only one part of it.
574
Across Europe, there's others.
575
There's ports, factories, quiet rooms where Russia's war is kept alive by paperwork and profit.
576
Every Russian missile contains components originating in the West.
577
And every one of them depends on one thing.
578
Silence.
579
I don't know.
580
It is not connected to any sort of a war machine.
581
And tonight, they should all feel something they've never felt before.
582
Fear of the truth
583
Because if O'Hinish can fall
584
Then so can the rest And this is what they want people to forget That nothing changes until people act
585
And once they do
586
Many small people in many small places Doing many small things can alter the face of the world And today,
587
they did As usual, thank you so much for watching.
588
And now, on to the next story.
589
Thank you. so Thank
590
you.
591
Thank you.
592
Thank you.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Ireland has a serious Russia problem”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: refinery, Russian, Ireland. This video has 592 sentences and 7052 words to shadow. The speech runs for 42:15. The speaker talks at a natural 167 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| refinery noun | /rɪˈfaɪnərɪ/ | A building, or a mass of machinery, used to produce refined products such as sugar, oil, or metals. |
| sanction noun | /ˈsæŋkʃən/ | An approval, by an authority, generally one that makes something valid. |
| missile noun | /ˈmɪs.aɪl/ | Any object used as a weapon by being thrown or fired through the air, such as stone, arrow or bullet. |
| aluminum noun | /əˈlu.mɪ.nəm/ | American, Canadian, and Philippines standard spelling of aluminium. |
| alumina noun | /əˈl(j)uːmɪnə/ | Aluminum oxide, especially when used in mining, material sciences or ceramics, a refractory solid compound. |
| bauxite noun | /ˈbɔːksaɪt/ | The principal ore of aluminium; a clay-like mineral, being a mixture of hydrated oxides and hydroxides. |
| shady adjective | /ˈʃeɪdi/ | Abounding in shades. |
| farmer noun | /ˈfɑɹ.mɚ/ | A person who works the land and/or who keeps livestock; anyone engaged in agriculture on a farm. |
| caustic adjective | /ˈkɔːstɪk/ | Capable of burning, corroding or destroying organic tissue. |
| devastation noun | /ˌdɛ.vəˈsteɪ.ʃən/ | The act of devastating, or the state of being devastated; a laying waste. |
| livelihood noun | /ˈlaɪvlihʊd/ | A means of providing the necessities of life for oneself (for example, a job or income). |
| oligarch noun | /ˈɑləɡɑɹk/ | A member of an oligarchy; someone who is part of a small group that runs a country. |
| pretense noun | /ˈpɹiːtɛns/ | The action of pretending; false or simulated show or appearance; false or hypocritical assertion or representation. |
| hypothetical adjective | /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/ | Based upon a hypothesis; conjectural. |
| pint noun | /paɪnt/ | 20 fluid ounces, approximately 568 millilitres (an imperial pint). |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| turn out verb | To end up; to result. | |
| find out verb | To discover, as by asking or investigating. | |
| cover up verb | To conceal or disguise. | |
| go up verb | To move upwards. | |
| stand up for verb | To speak or act in support or defense of (a person, a cause, a belief, or the like). | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| look back verb | To think of (past events) in retrospect (in hindsight). | |
| pull up verb | /ˌpʊl ˈʌp/ | To lift upwards or vertically. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What motivated you to investigate this?
- You think this is weird?
- You don't think it's weird?
- Why do you think that is?
- Would you describe this situation as a cover-up?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been reading · I've actually been looking · we've been emailing |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've just arrived · we've just heard · has just left |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | being sent · being followed · is owned |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | person who has · anyone who has · Russia which is |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 187 contractions and reduced forms, such as I've, we're, we've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: sanction /ˈsæŋkʃən/, shady /ˈʃeɪdi/, devastation /ˌdɛ.vəˈsteɪ.ʃən/, politician /ˌpɑ.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/, pollution /pəˈluʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: refinery /rɪˈfaɪnərɪ/, aluminum /əˈlu.mɪ.nəm/, alumina /əˈl(j)uːmɪnə/, devastation /ˌdɛ.vəˈsteɪ.ʃən/, hypothetical /ˌhaɪpəˈθɛtɪkəl/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like refinery, sanction, missile.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.