Protests held in Westmeath over IPAS Centre

Protests have taken to the streets in Kinnegad in recent weeks, about the housing of asylum seekers and refugees at Harry's Hotel, with the most recent one taking place on Thursday June 19.

The protests drew a large crowd of people to gather outside the Church of the Assumption on Main Street. A local man, Michael Coyne, delivered a speech to the crowd before leading a loop around the town, passing Tesco and Aldi and back towards the church, all while waving flags and chanting.

Speaking before they began marching, Michael said: “You can't get doctors' appointments, the town is overwhelmed as it is, and we can't allow it to go any further.

“We have to stop it completely. If we say no, we say no. “What we are going to do today is take a little walk around the town, don't be afraid to make noise.”

In February, 30 Ukrainian nationals who were living in Kinnegad were moved elsewhere and replaced by asylum seekers.

Councillor Dennis Leanord, who raised the issue at a recent local authority meeting, told the Examiner of local disquiet: “The protests are simply against having an IPAS Centre for 150 plus single men in the middle of a small town.

“We have been writing to TDs and a group in the Department of Integration, trying to get meetings and information, but it has been very drip-fed.

“Kinnegad has never been a suitable place for 150-plus single men, whether they come from Cork, Galway or abroad, the facilities are just not there.”

Fr Tom Gilroy, local priest based in Kinnegad, condemned the protests, calling them “hate-filled”.

Speaking to the Westmeath Examiner, Fr Gilroy said: “I would like to question the appropriateness of the whole thing, especially because it started at the church.

“The church is an open-hearted, welcoming and hospitable place, and they are not an appropriate place to be holding, as far as I can see it anyway, hate-filled protests.”

Fr Girloy went on to downplay some of the claims and rhetoric surrounding the IPAS centre in Kinnegad, saying: “The implications that some of the migrants and refugees are creating enormous difficulties around Kinnegad they just are not true."

“My house is right between the church and their reception centre, so I see these people almost every day.

“A lot of them are Christians, and many of them have become parishioners of my own; they attend mass in the church, so these people, as far as I can see, are making a good go at being part of the community.