Protesters continued to gather outside the Racket Hall Hotel in Roscrea on Tuesday night, as the government agreed in principle to examine funding mechanisms to buy a disused hotel and turn it into a "community hotel" in the town.
The proposal was put forward at a meeting between local representatives and Minister for Integration Roderic O'Gorman earlier on Tuesday.
Speaking on Prime Time, Minister for State at the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts and Sport Thomas Byrne confirmed government plans to establish a "community-owned" hotel in Roscrea.
"Clearly, there's a great need for the facilities that a hotel offers to the community."
"This is clearly a major bone of contention in the community, and the minister has listened to what [Fianna Fáil TD] Jackie Cahill and [Cllr] Michael Smith have proposed and I'm confident that this will be acted upon," the minister added.
"Clearly, there's a great need for the facilities that a hotel offers to the community."
— RTÉ Prime Time (@RTE_PrimeTime) January 16, 2024
Minister for State @ThomasByrneTD speaks to @MiriamOCal about government plans to establish a "community-owned" hotel in Roscrea. @rtenews| #rtept pic.twitter.com/SAOkr16QEj
It came as scenes outside the Racket Hall Hotel of woman and children asylum seekers being shepherded past protestors, through lines of gardaí, shocked many on Monday.
Speaking to Prime Time at the scene, protestors said they were not to blame and directed criticism at the government and gardaí.
"I didn't put those kids in those positions. The gardaí put those children in those positions, the people who brought them in, put them in those positions, not me," said Mary-Claire Doran, one of around 150 people, mainly locals, who on Monday evening continued to protest.
"So as much as it's terrible to see children upset and children frightened - I think of my own children - and I wouldn't like those to be in those situations, but I didn't put them in that situation. That's in the hands of the Government and in the hands of the guards," she said.
Last Thursday, Racket Hall Hotel was suddenly closed to the public after the owners signed a contract with the State to use the premises to house people seeking international protection.
Around midday on Monday, slightly more than a dozen asylum seekers were shepherded into the hotel past protestors who were objecting to the change in use of the town's only surviving hotel.
"It was a horrible, horrible scene from both sides," said another local resident, Gillian Dunne.
Asked if the scenes could have been avoided if the protestors had not blocked the way for bus carrying the asylum seekers to get into the hotel, Ms Dunne said, "well, we had told [gardaí] we would be blocking the way. We told them there would be a human barricade. We said, 'we're saving our hotel. We don't want this to happen.’"
"I have always been a staunch supporter of An Garda Síochána my whole life," Mary-Claire Doran said.
"I have stood up for them on social media on numerous occasions but what I saw here… was disgusting. Like it was, it was inciting what happened."
"There was no need to drop those kids off when everything was happening. They could have been brought in an hour later when things are closed down," she said.
"The ordinary, decent, people who are just worried about their town, that's the crux of this here. I fully and firmly believe if this hotel had been disused none of this would have happened. But people are angry because they've taken the only hotel that we have in the town away from us," she said.
The views contained in this article are from people who attended Monday night’s protest at the hotel which is on the outskirts of Roscrea.
On Tuesday, Prime Time canvassed opinion in Roscrea town centre, where views of the protest were generally sympathetic though mixed.
Prime Time asked An Garda Síochána to comment on claims that they were heavy-handed in their dealing with protestors. In a statement, it said that aside from "a minor isolated physical confrontation the operation by An Garda Síochána and the attending people gathered were predominately very peaceful."
A man who was arrested has since been released, and a file will be prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions, according to the statement.
Among the protestors on Monday night were a handful of individuals known to regularly attend anti-immigration and other demonstrations, but they played no obvious role.
It was a protest dominated by locals. So why are they angry?
"It's not about the people coming in because they need somewhere to go... But they've shut down a fully functioning hotel," said another local resident, Laura Lynch.
"There's nowhere for weddings. There's nowhere for funerals...There's lots of places not open that they could be using, and I just don't understand why the government are doing it," she added.
"It wasn't closed because it was a hotel that there was never anybody in. It was a really good live music venue," Ms Doran said, referring to planned performances by comedian Pat Shortt and singer Dan McCabe which have now been cancelled.
Another local, Justin Phelan, said: "Weddings booked, parties booked, dinner dances booked. And they're all cancelled."
Visitors who would otherwise have stayed in the Racket Hall Hotel are now staying at nearby towns such as Birr, he said. That is "business gone out of town, it's just no good."
What about the state’s legal obligation to source accommodation?
Ms Lynch said, "I have no problem with them coming into the country whatsoever because everybody needs somewhere to go. But you don't come in and shut down the business to do it. You just, it just doesn't seem right."
The Racket Hall Hotel is now the third large asylum centre in Roscrea, including a former convent which is used to house hundreds of Ukrainians who have fled war.
Protestors say that using the Racket Hall Hotel to accommodate up to 160 asylum seekers will only put more pressure on already squeezed services.
"We don't have services for them. We don't have doctors…You can't get into a dentist," said Mr Phelan.
Another local woman, Gillian Dunne, echoed the sentiment. "We're under pressure as it is. And we're under even more pressure now," she said.
"There's a GP here that has hundreds and hundreds of patients that's going to be retiring in the next year and a half. So that's going to be a massive disaster."
Ms Dunne stated that after a two and half year wait to see a specialist, she now has an appointment, but she has to wait three weeks to get necessary blood tests done by her local GP.
Another commonly voiced sentiment among the protestors is that the town feels less safe since the arrival of people in large numbers from different countries.
"You talk to any elderly person out here tonight and ask them, do they feel safe walking in the streets of Roscrea? No, they don't," said Ms Dunne. "They feel intimidated. And that's no offence to these boys, but they're coming in, we don't know them."
In its statement, An Garda Síochána said that Roscrea "has not seen any increase in recorded crime or public order incidents associated with" its accommodation centres.
"On the contrary, An Garda Síochána understands that there has been very positive community engagement and relationships in Roscrea with those International Protection Centres."
It also noted that "notwithstanding isolated local incidents," it "has not recorded any significant increase in criminal activity or public order issues directly caused by International Protection Applicants at any location where International Protection Applicants are being accommodated at this time."
It added that it is "aware of significant and consistent volumes of speculation, misinformation, disinformation and falsehoods in circulation, particularly in relation to International Protection Applicants."
While individuals who consistently travel to demonstrations related to migrant centres across the country had a low profile at the protests in Roscrea, some of the conspiracy theories which they push and terms they use have been recently echoed by local Independent TD Mattie McGrath.
He told protestors at the Racket Hall Hotel on Saturday that the numbers seeking international protection in Ireland represented a "colonisation."
"The media have been told to hush it up, paint everybody as ‘whatever’," he told protestors. "It is really a colonisation of our country, a takeover of our country."
The TD also told protestors that Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Tanaiste Micheál Martin and Sinn Féin were taking orders from the World Economic Forum, a baseless claim often made by conspiracy theorists.
On Monday night, demonstrators told Prime Time that they plan to continue the protest, though some stated that they do not believe that their protest will result in the return of their hotel to public use.
"I don't believe for a second that the government are going to change their mind. But what I do think is important is that we aren't backing down," Ms Doran said.
"We are not going anywhere for now," she said, "we are here, and we'll be here for as long as it takes."
But the images of people seeking international protection having to be shepherded by Gardai into the Racket Hall Hotel will likely live long in many people’s memory.
When Gillian Dunne was asked if she thought people will look back in a few years and think that attempting to block asylum seekers’ access to the hotel wasn't a "worthwhile" thing to do, she replied, "I don't, no, no. Roscrea has had enough."
