Island mentality against asylum seekers shows up divided Ireland
NO man is an island, the aphorism goes, but this past week has highlighted how one of our most famous islands has proven inhospitable to refugees who have been allocated accommodation there.
Achill Island has been a popular tourist destination for decades, offering a window into the past in its low stone walls and charming cottages.
The Department of Justice booked available beds in the Achill Head Hotel in low season as emergency accommodation for 38 asylum seekers. Once news of the move was out it spread like wildfire. One caller to Joe Duffy outlined how people heard that over thirty men were being sent to live on the island. In reality, as Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan stressed in an interview over the weekend, 38 residents, mainly women, are being accommodated in the hotel. ‘ This is short-term emergency accommodation for a maximum period of three months [to end January 2020]. The 38 residents will be 13 single women, and the balance of 25 people will be made up of a small number of families due to arrive in the coming weeks. This is well within the normal number of people occupying this hotel in the tourist season,’ he said.
The female caller to Liveline said the main problem residents of the island have with the decision is the lack of consultation from the department. She called for a citizen’s assembly to be created to provide a forum in which just how the newcomers to the island can be assimilated and what it will mean for residents.
This is a fair point. Without opening up the debate about whether or not people who have arrived here as asylum seekers should be accommodated and receive all the supports available to Irish citizens in crisis situations – a debate which is bubbling away across the country at the moment – it’s suffice to say what is happening on Achill Island – a silent vigil outside the hotel with placards and pickets, is a microcosm of a divided Ireland.
On Thursday Mr Flanagan announced the women’s move was being postponed for fear it would prove psychologically traumatic to the refugees. Since the news about the postponement of the move emerged, Mr Flanagan said he had received approaches from ‘people up and down the country who feel they may be able to assist’ – a heartening development.
Arriving in any new place, having fled one’s home country, must be very difficult. Imagine then arriving to find angry faces, people holding aloft placards and pickets, some with alt-right slogans with racial undertones on them, according to reports.
Credit where credit’s due, Mr Flanagan said he will proceed with the plan to house the asylum seekers.
In late October a TG4 cameraman was subjected to jeers and taunts of ‘out, out, out’ before being ejected from a public meeting on Achill island at which the asylum seekers’ arrival was being debated.
It is understandable for members of any small community to become a bit apprehensive when any change happens within their locality and I agree that communication is key. But we’re talking about families who are fleeing murderous regimes here. Standing back from the heat and emotion of the issue is vital. One of my favourite bands – Tool – released a song this year, whose opening lyric is: ‘We are born of one breath’. Hopefully a sense of shared humanity can see a peaceful way through the arrival of asylum seekers on our shores.