Hundreds of people attended a protest Wednesday night against the conversion of the Gables guesthouse in Newbridge, Co Kildare into a migrant centre, despite the battering wind and rain of Storm Agnes.
The large crowd in attendance expressed anger at the local TDs and councillors who they accused of putting the needs of their constituents ahead of accommodating migrants who had arrived claiming international protection.
The crowd held handmade signs that said “Look after our own. Health, education, and housing, and “Newbridge Says No”.
One local woman told Gript that people were upset that the guesthouse had been previously been used for emergency accommodation for Irish people, including homeless families, but that they had been moved on earlier this year.
The Gables is a 25-bedroom guesthouse which was sold to the owner of the Eyre Powell Hotel for €1.35m in June this year. Around €15m has been provided to companies operating the Eyre Powell Hotel between 2004 and 2018 for direct provision services for migrants, Kildare Now reported last year.
The Newbridge for All group that they were working together to welcome “the young men seeking safety who will be housed in The Gables over the coming weeks” – and that they believed “in the value and power of inclusive connected communities.”
But those attending Wednesday’s protest felt that locals were not being listened to.
Local woman Noreen O’Shea, who attended Wednesday’s protest, said that “Irish families were moved out of the Gables and sent to other accommodation in Athy. I know one woman whose kids were in school in Newbridge and was who now has to bring them all the way from Athy, and that’s not fair.”
“We feel angry because the Irish are always paddy last, and the size of the crowd on Wednesday even with the storm shows that people are no longer willing to put up with being pushed around,” she said.
“We’re already so stretched for basic services in the town,” Ms O’Shea added. “32,000 people in Newbridge with only 15 doctors – people are already on waiting lists to be seen, kids and old people in need of basic services, yet now we’re having another direct provision centre opening in Kildare.”
She said that the government seemed to have endless money to provide accommodation and services for people arriving from other countries. “This is happening while Irish children can’t get operations and people with disabilities can’t get services and old people are homeless,” she said. “There are 232 people homeless in Kildare, could they not have been given that guesthouse?”
The Newbridge woman said that wealthy companies and individuals were making “a fortune” out of the surge in migrants arriving into Ireland, and said that, leaving aside people from Ukraine, many of those arriving were “not leaving a war.”
“The government’s own figures show that most in accommodation are from Georgia and countries like Algeria,” she said. “Why are we being forced to go along with this pretence that it’s about asylum seekers, when what’s happening is that were having hundreds of strange men brought into our community on busses without even asking us?”
“The Gables had a gym and a swimming pool, and locals used it, it was very accessible for disabled people. Now that’s all shut down, another thing the town has lost, its like the government doesn’t care about its own people,” she said. “There’s a park behind the Gables, are we going to lose that too?”.
Last week, Jim Lawless TD told constituents opposing a migrant centre in Sallins that “similar centres are already open or proposed in Prosperous, Caragh, Newbridge, Kill, Leixlip, Celbridge to name but a few local sites.”
Local Newbridge Councillor Robert Power had posted on social media last week that the Gables was to be occupied by 100 people who had arrived claiming asylum. The Kildare Nationalist reported that all those proposed for accommodation in the guesthouse were men.
Cllr Power said that “the residency will be made up entirely of young men seeking safety in the coming days/weeks. The Dept of Social protection will work with them to attain PPS numbers and after six months they will be entitled to work in the country.”
“I am in touch with local organisations who are working together to make sure these young men are welcomed in our community and I know the vast majority of people will share that feeling.”
However, in the hundreds of responses posted to Cllr Power’s post, the vast majority seemed critical of the news.
“The disconnect between the State and the people seems to be growing as there is rarely an adult conversation on immigration,” was one comment, while another read: “Crazy crazy. Next election is going to put a stop to this nonsense.”
“Its bad enough for women always having to look over their shoulder while out for a walk or a jog without the added worry of 100 extra men knocking around the place. Robert Power can you vouch for these men? I don’t think so.”
“We invited the local representatives, including the local TDs, and not one them showed up,” she said. “People will not forget this, we won’t forget come the election how we were treated.”
In response to a query from Gript, Cllr Power said that the statement “does not attempt either directly nor indirectly to generalise all people with concerns over the centre or those opposed to it.” He said he did not believe the characterisation referred to applied to the statement.