A baby boy born to Ukrainian refugee parents on the remote Donegal island of Arranmore has become known locally as a "little star," marking the island's first birth in more than 30 years. The story of the Karpenko family, who fled Ukraine in 2022 and settled among the dozens of Ukrainians who found refuge on Ireland's Atlantic islands, features in a new TG4 documentary series highlighting how displaced families have integrated into small, tight-knit island communities.

Father Oleksandr "Alex" Karpenko and his wife Vladyslava were permitted to leave Ukraine with their four children because they had a large family, and moved to an island whose summer population of around 500 is smaller than their old apartment block in Ukraine. Their son Marvin was born at home in 2023, becoming the first baby born on Arranmore in three decades, while his older siblings have picked up fluent, Donegal-accented Irish, which their translator and family friend Sasha Halytska says they now speak "even better than English."