It’s a sad fact Ireland’s biggest town is now bulging at the seams

IT’S not often Drogheda makes the national news but it made the RTE headlines three times in one day this week.

As someone born and bred in the town I was saddened to see it was all bad news as it related to the closure of the Marks & Spencer store and the tale of a homeless elderly man forced to sleep in a graveyard.

But the big news story was the shock disclosure that 500 asylum seekers are to be housed in the local D Hotel which is now closed for visitors after a decision that could sound the death knell for tourism in the area.

While this is a sad story about the decline of Ireland’s biggest town it will resonate with those in other towns and villages which are at the receiving end of the Government’s insane open borders policies.

Dumping hundreds of people in the centre of a town which can’t provide services for the local population is not fair on anyone, including the migrants.

Indeed, even Government ministers tie themselves in knots referring to those coming to the country as refugees, asylum seekers, international protection applicants or, when all else fails, “new arrivals”.

On Wednesday morning, without public consultation, the only remaining large hotel in a town of 50,000 people with a hinterland of 100,000 was gone.

Now anyone planning a wedding reception or other function will be forced to leave the area as the only other large hotel was converted into a refugee centre some years ago.

I’ve known for some weeks that a deal had been done to convert the D Hotel to an asylum seeker centre but local representatives were not informed.

The same contacts have informed me there are another 500 migrants on the way who are to be placed in a building not far from the D Hotel.

Many local people believe what is taking place is a government racket where it is more profitable for hotel owners to house migrants than paying guests.

It’s not as if Drogheda has not taken in hundreds if not thousands of those claiming asylum as there are up to a dozen accommodation centres in surrounding villages.

Already local services are stretched to the limit with families having to travel as far away as Ashbourne, Co Meath, to obtain GP services.

The town’s Lourdes Hospital is similarly at breaking point with overworked staff barely coping with the workload.

Despite its many problems the port town of Drogheda has always been a welcoming place and was at one time home to the Medical Missionaries of Mary’s training hospital.

The thousands of doctors and nurses who trained in the local Lourdes Hospital, mostly from Africa, were to a large extent treated as celebrities by the locals.

But it is the sheer volume of people from overseas that has upset the social balance and adding hundreds if not thousands more will only add to the town’s problems.

I dearly love the place but am deeply saddened at what it has become and, like many others, feel like a stranger in my own town. The public are also disappointed with their elected representatives who appear more concerned about potholes than events which could possibly pose a threat to the social fabric of the town and, in turn, threaten social cohesion.

They also seem to be oblivious to the financial damage that will be caused by the closure of a 110-bedroom hotel.

Many businesses in the town which are already struggling will now be in danger of going under.

I’ll probably be accused of being far right but it’s about quality of life for all and what the Government is doing is a form of self-serving greed with no consideration of the consequences.

For the record I’ve been a Labour party supporter and trade unionist since I was 18 and a member of the NUJ for the past three decades.

But isn’t it a sad reflection on the society we live in that an individual must prove they are not an extremist for simply going against the Government’s migration orthodoxy?

On a visit to Dublin during the week the German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said people will accept migrants and asylum seekers if they see the government has “control” of the situation.

The Irish Government has clearly lost control of the situation and this is reflected in recent polls which show people want limits on the numbers allowed into the country.

The Irish Government has clearly lost control of the situation