A Somalian has been charged with murder before a special sitting of Killarney District Court after a stabbing at an asylum centre in Tralee, Co Kerry at the weekend.
Somalian national Ismail Mustaph Hussan (49) was charged yesterday evening with the murder of Muhudin Osman Suleyman at the International Protection Accommodation Centre at Ballymullen Barracks on Saturday morning.
Hussan is also charged with assaulting 32-year-old Hassan Hussein Abady in the asylum centre, causing him harm, contrary to Section 3 of the Non-Fatal-Offences against the Person Act.
The proceedings were explained to Hussan in the court through a Somali interpreter.
It has been reported that Gardaí are investigating whether the attack occurred after a row over snoring in a shared sleeping space in the former barracks.
RTÉ reports that Detective Sergeant James Hurley of Tralee Garda Station gave evidence of arrest, charge and caution.
He told the court that the accused made no reply when the charges were put to him.
There was no application for bail as the District Court does not have the jurisdiction to grant bail on a murder charge.
Judge Joanne Carroll remanded the accused in custody to appear before Tralee District Court on Wednesday via video-link.
Locals protested the proposed use of Ballymullen Barracks in June 2024, describing it as a “super size” migrant centre – one of several listed as options in a government memo which also listed Columb Barracks in Mullingar and Thornton Hall and Ballyogan in Dublin.
While the Department of Integration insisted at that time that there was “currently no proposal to use a former army barracks in Tralee to house people seeking international protection”, it was then announced in December 2024 that single male asylum applicants were being moved into the centre.
At the June protest, activist Mary Fitzgibbon, told Gript that local people “had no trust and no faith in the government in regard to what might happen in Ballymullen given the absolute chaos in the asylum system.”
“Previously, local people had hoped that [the barracks] would become a HSE facility for the needs of the community, and it now appears it will become an IPAS centre in a county that has already taken far more than its fair share,” she said at the time.
Opposition to the use of Ballymullen Barracks as an asylum centre was in place as far back as 2000 with the Irish Times reporting that “around 150 to 170 residents protested at the gates of Balllymullen barracks in Tralee” in May of that year, after plans to house 200 asylum-seekers in 50 mobile homes were revealed.
“The Minister for Justice, Mr O’Donoghue, has written to the Chairwoman of Tralee UDC, Ms Norma Foley, to assure residents of “a sensitive” approach and of locating “mainly families” in the barracks,” the 2000 newspaper report said.
MASSIVE INCREASE IN INCIDENTS AT IPAS CENTRES
Figures released earlier this year showed a “massive” increase in the number of incidents recorded at IPAS centres throughout the country, and indicate a concerning trend of “transferring bad actors from one location to another”, one TD said,
Data released to Deputy Peadar Tóibín from the Department of Justice showed that the number of incidents recorded soared from 5 in 2021 to 5725 in 2025 – a thousand-fold rise.
While the Department said that it should be noted that the number of people living in IPAS accommodation has increased very significantly over the last 5 years, that increase is not proportionate to the massive rise in incidents recorded.
In 2021, the Department said, some 7,000 people were in asylum accommodation. That figure now stands at 33,000 – almost a five-fold increase.
Deputy Tóibín said: “There has been a massive increase in the number of incidents in IPAS centres from 2021 to 2025. Many of these have been violent. We have seen a rise from 5 incidents in 2021 to 5725 last year. And for sure this has been caused in part by the increase of the IPAS population. But if you control the figures, to the increase in population there should have been 30 incidents last year not 5,725.”