Protesters in Urlingford, Country Kilkenny have been engaging in what one participant described as a “rolling protest” outside a former restaurant in the town.
The protests came about after locals learned that a former restaurant owned by Bernard Kavanagh & Sons Ltd of Urlingford has been earmarked as emergency accommodation for refugees.
Crowds took to the streets over the weekend marching through the town on Saturday holding banners with slogans such as “Protect Our Children”, “Stand Your Ground”, and “Urlingford Says No”.
Local man Aidan told Gript that residents of Urlingford felt they had been left in the dark about what the owners of the premises -which used to be a well known restaurant called Josephine’s on the old Cork to Dublin road – plan to do with it.
Aidan said that over the last two weeks or so information regarding the future use of the building – which was described as being about the size of a small hotel – had evolved several times from it being used as office space for Bernard Kavanagh & Sons Ltd of Urlingford to being used as sleeping quarters for drivers, before information that it would be used as accommodation for refugees emerged.
“People want to know what’s happening.” he said, describing how the local community had received no official communication from the relevant government authorities regarding plans to house refugees in the town.
He described the town as “a long line of houses” with about one good sized shop and four pubs saying that the population was somewhere in the region of 1,000 people.
Locals said they believe that the building will be used to house in the region of 200 people which has caused concern as they say the town does not have a full time police station with the nearest fulltime Garda station approximately 25 mins away by car.
In a statement released by the owners of the building in order to address “misinformation” about the intended development of the premises said, “The site is currently being redeveloped and repurposed to accommodate both Ukrainian people and their families, who are fleeing the war in their country, and staff of the company. We currently have a number of Ukrainian people working in our group of companies and we will continue to support them and their families during this time of unrest in Ukraine.”
It continued that “a number of falsified claims were brought to our attention regarding the development of the building at the former site of Josephine’s Restaurant. We can say, profoundly, that this information is categorically untrue. At no time was it ever considered to use the building to house International Protection (IP) Migrants and as such, we would request the misinformation currently being spread to desist.”
On the 5th of January KCLR News reported that Cllr. Michael McCarthy said it was “his understanding that an application is currently with the Department for Social Protection, Children and the Taoiseach to house 40 Ukrainians at that site.”
Barry, who said he grew up in the area, told Gript that back in the early 2000s when he was in school he was “jammed” into a classroom and that the situation had not improved substantially.
He described a lack of amenities in the area saying there is a bus that goes to Kilkenny twice a day except Sundays and that there is “nothing to do” apart from GAA.