‘They’re asking us, is there room at the inn? Of course there’s room’
❝ It’s a dereliction of our duty to humanity to not open our doors to those in need
News that a hotel in a favourite destination for Northern Ireland holidaymakers is being used to house 100 asylum-seekers has divided opinion in a quiet town in Co Donegal. Some residents look forward to welcoming the new arrivals, but others are concerned about the effect on tourism. Kathy Donaghy reports
The pretty seaside town of Moville juts out into Lough Foyle just before the point where the water opens out into the wide expanse of the Atlantic. While its Victorian grandeur has faded, its neat terraces and streets sloping gently down to the shore front make it picturesque even in bleak weather.
It’s a place that 1,400 people are proud to call home. In coffee shops, supermarkets and along the town’s coastal path, where many locals take a daily stroll, there was only one conversation on everyone’s lips this week: the new asylum-seekers’ accommodation centre.
On the town’s Foyle Street, there was no sign of life at the Caiseal Mara Hotel. Its glory days are long past.
For well over 30 years, it stood as a beacon of hospitality to diners and revellers.
But in recent years, its fortunes ebbed away, and when the Republic’s Reception and Integration Agency (RIA) advertised for accommodation centres last September, the Caiseal Mara Hotel was one of a number of premises which applied.
Now it’s preparing to welcome new guests, but not everyone in Moville is happy about it.
When Tracy Cullen Sheehan heard her town would soon be home to 100 people seeking asylum, she decided to set up a welcoming committee and used her Facebook page to ask people to get in touch if they’d like to get involved. She was inundated with messages from hundreds of people pledging to help in any way they could.
A lecturer at the North West Regional College in Limavady, she was prompted to act after hearing what she calls some “less than charitable” comments from people in the town.
“These people who will be seeking asylum here are desperate,” Tracy says. “Ireland has made a commitment to do its bit and we’re only doing a small bit. This is hugely positive for the town and the cultural diversity will be amazing.
“Most people who are coming won’t even be in this country yet. They will be walking across deserts, or hitching rides in trucks as we speak.
“I’d like individuals and families coming here to be given the opportunity to flourish.”
At the Foyle Hotel on the town’s Main Street, chef Brian McDermott is preparing for the lunchtime trade. He took over the Foyle, which had lain empty for a decade, this summer and is dismayed that the only other hotel in the town will not be re-opening as a hotel again.
“The only other hotel is now gone forever as a tourist business,” he says. “Why should a government agency, the RIA, that has never set foot in Moville before, determine the future of this town?
“With the right investment, we could have had another 40plus rooms for tourists here. The business is here. But, instead, they land more than 100 people into an area, and there has been no consultation about it.
Brian believes there are many questions remaining about how people seeking asylum coming into the town will be integrated and what resources they will have.
But he insists his main issues are the lack of consultation with locals and the effects on local tourism.
“Moville can’t take a coach tour now,” he says. “I have 16 bedrooms in my hotel. I worked hard all summer to encourage the cruise ship businesses to stop in Moville. I’ve gone and met them and told them to stop here. I’ve had to fight for my business. We put the jump leads on and brought this hotel back. I feel hurt by this whole thing.”
At Moville Community College, principal Anthony Doogan says he won’t know who will be joining the school community until the week before they arrive. “If there are teens among them, we’ll be looking at taking them in,” he adds.
Mr Doogan explains that in the history of the school there has been a limited experience of students from other countries.
While there have been pupils from India, Bangladesh and eastern Europe, that has been the extent of any multiculturalism the school has seen.
Despite that, Mr Doogan stresses the school is ready and willing to welcome any new arrivals, and the help will not be limited to supporting people in the classroom alone — the building will also be used for after-school activities to make sure that people ease into their new lives.
At the nearby health centre, Dr Garrett Duffy says he is concerned about the practice’s ability to meet the physical and psychological needs of the town’s new residents with the resources they have.
With two full-time doctors, two part-time doctors and a General Medical Services (GMS) list of 3,800 people, with private patients on top of that, Dr Duffy and his staff have concerns about the increased workload.
He says they have not been informed about who is coming and what their physical or psy- chological needs might be. And he raises concerns about the potential need for interpreters or translators when important medical histories are being taken.
At Norrie’s coffee shop in the town, Toni Devine is ready to welcome those coming to Moville and wants everyone to be ready to play their part in helping people displaced by major global issues, such as war and climate change, to settle into a new life here.
“Of course, people have to be taken in and welcomed,” she says. “We are a rich country. It would be a dereliction of our duty to humanity not to open our doors to those in need. We have a culture of doing that. The Irish have a history of coming up trumps.
“I’m excited to learn about the people coming — it’s going to be an interesting time.”
However, Mrs Devine has reservations about the suitability of the former hotel as an appropriate place to accommodate families and children.
“Having worked in the community, I would have concerns about the building being used 100% of the time,” she says.
“How is it going to be looked after and where is the money coming from?”
She stresses the community has a chance to make sure the new arrivals have a comfortable, safe place to come to.
“Part of my thinking comes from working with Women’s Aid and Derry Well Woman,” she explains. “When you ask women what they want and what they need, they say a clean space where they and their children are safe. The community has to be the arbiter of standards.”
Despite her concerns about the building, Mrs Devine has no worries about the warmth of the welcome the people will get.
“The welcome and the support from the community will be wonderful,” she stresses.
“It’s in the blood of Moville people to welcome others — it’s who we are.
“Sometimes, negativity is based on fear and not knowing what’s going to happen. This can offer us the opportunity to be the best we can be. There is an opportunity to see the world outside of our own bubble.
“What’s happening in the world has come to us now. They’re asking us, is there room at the inn? Of course there’s room.”