His first collection of sketches and short stories was titled Nirvana’s Laughter (Сміх Нірвани), a condemnation of war.

It is set in a Galician city early in 1920, as the Red Army offensive against Poland was stalling, and tells of a failed insurrection organized by pro-Soviet Ukrainian activists in the workers' movement.

[3] Following the end of the civil war, Irchan settled in Kyiv where he met and married his wife Zdenka.

[2]: 6 In 1923, Irchan was invited to come to Canada through ULTA (Ukrainian Labour Temple Association)[4] to edit their journal Working Woman (Робітниця), to which he had already contributed articles.

In all cases where the drama of the doubting and confused mind is Irchan's interest, his work takes on a rich texture and offers many possible readings and many complex interpretations.

Finally, some of the membership of ULTA may have encountered problems with his work, possibly finding it too much that of the expression of an individual rather than of their organization.

[2]: 55 Irchan returned to Ukraine at a time when Stalin’s repression of artists, academics, and gifted individuals in all fields was intensifying.

In a letter she wrote to a friend in Winnipeg, she says, “Please do not send me anymore newspapers, and notify New York to do the same thing, because they are causing me unpleasantness.

Irchan was interrogated by Pavel Postyshev who is considered to be one of the principal architects of the famine of 1932–1933, known in Ukraine as Holodomor.

Irchan was accused of “belonging” to the nationalist Ukrainian counter-revolutionary organization, which worked to overthrow Soviet rule in Ukraine by military means.