Planning issue will delay arrival of refugees coming to Dromahair
A north Leitrim councillor has said she received abusive phone calls and texts after she attended a gathering in Dromahair related to the arrival of 155 refugees in the village.
Fianna Fáil Cllr Mary Bohan was one of a number of politicians who attended the gathering last Wednesday week.
Meanwhile, due to a planning issue with the building to accommodate them, the arrival of any refugees in Dromahair has been delayed to an unspecified date. This news emerged at a meeting on Tuesday.
At that meeting on Tuesday night involving the Community Engagement Team, a small number of representatives from the Leitrim For All Group were refused admission by another group, The Concerned Residents Group.
Blathín Gallagher of the Green Party and Bernie Linnane of the Labour Party were turned away from the meeting. Ms Linnane told Ocean FM they were directed “rather aggressively” to leave the building.
Deputy Martin Kenny, SF, said it was “disappointing” that the meeting with the Community Engagement Team was “not inclusive” and the exclusion of Ms Gallagher and Linnane was unfortunate.
Fiona McPadden, spokesperson for the Concerned Residents Group, said they felt it would be
“counterproductive” to have two opposing groups at the meeting. She said they didn’t want the meeting to turn into a “slanging match”.
Over a week ago, on Wednesday, November 22, an estimated 200 people gathered outside the Abbey Manor Hotel in Dromahair in response to news that 155 refugees are to be housed in the property, among them 31 single men.
Cllr Bohan who was at the gathering, said since the event in Dromahair she has received phone calls and texts accusing her of being anti-refugee and a member of a vigilante group aiming to prevent refugees from coming to the north Leitrim village.
Cllr Bohan said she is not hugely put out by the abuse. She said it is a form of bullying by people if you don’t agree with them.
“I’m more than 40 years representing the people of this area, I don’t take much regard of the abuse levelled at me by one or two irresponsible people. I want to tell the people who are doing this to me that it’s water off a duck’s back.
“It might not be for everybody, and I would rather it didn’t happen but I’m not going to be losing any sleep over these people.
“What has been lost is that the people of Dromahair and the recently set up Concerned Citizens of Dromahair group are very happy to welcome people that are coming from wartorn areas and from persecution, but we want them to come where they can integrate and where the services would be provided for them. “At the moment the position is that there could be in excess of 200 people coming to the accommodation at the former Abbey Manor Hotel where there is in one instance what was described as a family room with eight beds in it. That, in my view, is not the accommodation we want to be bringing them to in Dromahair.” Explaining how the abusive phone calls arose, she told Ocean FM she had been phoned by supposed freelance journalists. “When I asked them who they were representing, they weren’t able to tell me,” she said.
She said the nature of public debate now was that if you had an issue or are opposed to something you are immediately labelled, in this case a racist. “I have supported people from all walks of life, which is my duty as a public representative, and I will continue to do that.”
Speaking at last Wednesday week’s initial public gathering in Dromahair, Cllr Bohan said: “We are very sympathetic to people and do want to assist them, but we want them to be comfortable and want to be able to integrate them. The department has made a mess of this and haven’t learned their lesson from the protests that took place in Clare and now people here are landed with this.”
She said she was asking the department to “pause” the arrival of the people to the hotel, “row back on the numbers and have consultations here locally; organise schools, doctors, etc., for a smaller number of families and then the people in Dromahair will embrace that”.
Raising the refugee issue in the Dáil, Independent TD Marian Harkin said the Government needs to rebuild trust and communication with rural communities.
She asked the Taoiseach if his Government would “work proactively” with community groups like the Dromahair Concerned Residents. Members of that group she said had her and fellow TDs Martin Kenny and Frank Feighan they would be “the first in line” to support refugees when they may arrive in the village.
However, she said they need to be assisted, resources to do so need to be provided, she said.
Addressing the Taoiseach directly she said: “Trust in rural communities is a fragile thing, cohesion even more so, I am asking you to restore both.” Responding, Mr Varadkar said he was confident the community would be fully briefed on all developments. “I am aware of the situation in Dromahair. I have been briefed about it, but only today (Tuesday) so I don’t want to comment on it in detail, in case I don’t have all the facts, but I would say I have been told a Community Engagement Team has been set up, and they have been engaging with you, Deputy Kenny and Deputy Feighan in an effort to set out exactly what is happening and what is not happening in Dromahair.”