Fr O’Riordan had been living in the Middle East country until recently and worked as director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, in Aleppo, for three years.
He said the fall of the Assad regime had “reawakened hope”, though “millions of people are going meal to meal, day to day”.
In June, the Jesuit priest left Syria and is now living in Co Armagh, but he maintains daily contact with his former colleagues in Aleppo and Homs, getting updates on the situation.
Speaking to the Irish Independent, he said he was “really concerned” about Ireland’s move to temporarily pause decisions on asylum applications from Syrians following the end of Bashar al-Assad’s rule.
“I was disgusted that we were thinking that way as our first reaction. To create that level of uncertainty for the small pool of Syrians who are in Ireland seeking asylum at the moment, was below the belt and very dubious leadership.”
The Co Cork native said he believes Ireland should be supportive of Syrians.
“We should be offering them the necessary legal guarantee that their position in Ireland is secure.
“I think many of them will be minded to go back to Syria, but it would be easier to contemplate going back if you had the guarantee that you could return to Ireland. We should look at training needs to help them re-establish themselves when they get back to Syria.
“They are ordinary people who are family-focused, who are experiencing hunger, darkness and cold. They have hopes for their children. Their families are scattered throughout the world.
“They very much just want to have normality, and are not too ideologically focused on what democratic system they have, once they have fairness and a sense of safety within their country.”
Fr O’Riordan was to the fore of relief efforts around Aleppo following the deadly 2023 earthquake in which almost 6,000 Syrians and over 50,000 people in neighbouring Turkey perished.The priest said he was worried about the “crushing humanitarian suffering” of Syrians who struggle for sufficient food and the basic necessities, access to healthcare, education for their children, and adequate and dignified shelter after more than a decade of conflict.
“There has been a huge rise in food insecurity, about 16 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.
“What is really frustrating is that last year the World Food Programme, which had been active in Syria for many years, had to cease its operations because of a lack of funding.
“Meanwhile, people with chronic illnesses such as hypertension or diabetes, in the vast majority of cases have to forgo medication in favour of food.”
One contributory factor is the dramatic collapse of the value of the Syrian pound. The value of people’s income was being slashed day by day, and basic commodities were increasing.
But the toppling of Assad has, he believes, reawakened hope.
“People are relieved Assad is gone and it happened in a miraculous way with no bloodshed. They are happy banks and commerce are beginning to function again and that their work is resuming.
“In a context where hope was dead, people are beginning to believe there is a way to a better future.
“That is hugely significant because most Syrians, particularly the ablebodied and the young, had got to the stage where their future lay outside of Syria.
“Now they are saying maybe they have a future in Syria.”
But having lived through the last 14 years, Syrians have grounds to be cautious about the de facto leader, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, and the possibility that the new regime might take things in an oppressive or sectarian way.
For Fr O’Riordan, what gives him concern is the role of vested interests of outside forces.
“The attitude and actions of bad actors who want to see the situation develop in a way that suits their interests.
“The Russians are still active there, the Iranians, the Americans, the European Union and Turkey. These are very powerful, they have the capacity to create huge instability in Syria.
“The scale of Israel’s bombing in Syria has been frightening and there has been a land grab in the south of Syria.
“That has the capacity to threaten a regime with the best of intentions.
“If Syria was left to itself and was supported, there would seem to be enough resourcefulness amongst the Syrians and enough capacity to work across different religions and identities within Syria to build together.”