The Baltic cause has many sympathizers among the Irish who still vividly remember their long-year struggle for independence and freedom. An eloquent expression of this solidarity is a poem by the Irish poet, Cionaith Bale, published in the magazine Deirdre (vol. XXIV, No. 1, Spring 1967):

CHANGES

I read the names in a geography book –
Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania –
And pleased was I to see the small expanses coloured on the map
Between their narrow frontiers.

I thought about the people of these lands
To pass away the time from day to day,
A gentle, tranquil people they must be
Peaceful fold of the sandy hills
Like the men of my own country.
How clear I saw the cornfields and the woods,
The cosy little towns,
The spires of the churches,
The walls of the cities,
There I warmed my heart.