Wicklow welcomes asylum seekers
REPORTER DAVID MEDCALF CALLED TO THE REDCROSS HOME OF EMMA KITSON, WHOSE POST ON SOCIAL MEDIA IN NOVEMBER 2018 LED TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN ORGANISATION LENDING SUPPORT TO REFUGEES IN WICKLOW AND ASHFORD
EMMA Kitson never really planned to become chairwoman of an organisation to make asylum seekers feel at home in Ireland. Wicklow Welcomes was the result of not much more than an indignant post on Facebook. However, as it turned out, her social media broadside found an audience of people who shared her disquiet.
Like her, they were uneasy at the negative reaction in some quarters to the conversion of the Grand Hotel in Wicklow to become a ‘direct provision’ centre. It was perfectly reasonable of course for people in the town to be upset that they had lost a venue for social gatherings. But Emma was disturbed that upset spilled over into something more sinister and hostile.
She put out the message that Wicklow should welcome refugees, not treat them as any kind of threat. In time – a surprisingly short time - this attracted a group of like-minded folk and the support of local clergy.
Now Wicklow Welcomes has a committee running a series of cosmopolitan coffee mornings as well as providing practical, friendly support for people fleeing persecution.
Close to 200 foreign arrivals have benefited over the past year or so from the initiative, with the net widened to embrace families staying in Ashford as well as those in the Grand. Most of them were in attendance at the Wicklow Welcomes second annual Christmas party last month where more than 400 gifts were stacked around the festive tree, donated by friends and supporters.
As the organisation which she never really intended to establish continues to grow, Emma took the time to speak to your reporter at her home in Redcross. A southside Dubliner born and bred, she and husband Chris came to live in the hills above Arklow thirteen years ago. They were both on the staff of the Northern Trust bank in the capital city at the time.
With its headquarters in Chicago, Northern Trust is a financial institution which most people in this country have little or no awareness of. But it attracts trillions of dollars in savings and investments from wealthy people across the United States, much of the money channelled into various hedge funds and vulture funds. Emma is an accountant by profession and was well able to supervise the 1,500 or so accounts under her wing but confesses that she prefers working with people rather juggling figures.
Through the bank, she became involved in the grandly named ‘Common Purpose Meridian Leadership Programme’ which teamed her up with public servants in a project intended to benefit prisoners in the jail at Wheatfield. The experience changed her: ‘I knew I wanted to do more on the side of social justice – something different that would make a difference.’
Emma did not enjoy the commuting to work in Dublin from Redcross, a daily grind which she recalls as ‘horrendous’. So when the opportunity came to take a redundancy offer from the bank, she said thank you very much to Northern Trust and left Chris to do battle with the rush hour traffic alone. She stayed at home to look after the growing number of children in the family - the couple’s fourth arrived last year.
But life for such a lively mind was never going to be all about
changing nappies and doing the school run, though she happily carries out such duties. The campaigner in her was eventually awoken by the referendum on the Eighth Amendment in which she was instinctively drawn to the ‘yes’ side.
She diagnosed disarray in the ‘Together for Yes’ movement across South Wicklow and decided to act - she called a meeting and admits candidly that she took over. The experience put her in touch with others of like mind, creating a loosed network of folk – most of them women – with an interest in politics and public affairs.
Emma briefly reverted to concentrating on the school run after the excitement and effort of the referendum, until another issue re-ignited the concerned citizen in her during November of 2018. The announcement was made that the Grand Hotel in Wicklow Town was to become a centre for ‘direct provision’ offering accommodation to 100 asylum seekers. The town was slow to roll out the welcome mat as the move inspired rumbles of protest, inspired by a mixture of discontent at the loss of a social venue and fear of the unknown.
‘There was uproar,’ Emma remembers, uproar which edged into the throwing of bottles as well as the shouting of abuse. After she witnessed luckless staff at the Grand being caught in a torrent of harsh words, she immediately felt that the behaviour of the protesters was appalling.
‘I want to be proud of being part of the Wicklow community,’ she explains – and picking on vulnerable refugees was not her idea of fair play. ‘I said I am going to do something about this.’ The first step to doing something was simple enough, setting up a Facebook page on the issue, though it was soon clear that this would not stop at posts on social media.
The Facebook initiative calling for hospitality rather than hostility soon brought her 500 followers and they needed something of substance to follow. She found that she was fielding calls from newspapers and radio presenters as the ripples generated by her initiative spread.
‘It became a bit of a beast and my head was about to explode,’ the accidental campaign leader now admits as she looks back at the stream of queries and offers which she fielded. A vein of goodwill had been tapped and it was time to call up reinforcements, most of them veterans of the ‘Together for Yes’ movement, women such as Shannon O’Halloran and Louise Rooney.
They contacted Grand owner Adrian Shanagher and arranged to set up a play room in the hotel for the children of the families who had moved in. The first Wicklow Welcomes Christmas party followed, with a wave of local sponsorship and support ensuring that each adult, though far from home, had at least three presents under the tree, with seven for each child. Local Christian churches weighed in behind the initiative to make the new neighbours feel at home, though many of them may be Muslims, Hindus or whatever.
‘We said Christmas was a special time of year for us,’ explains Emma. ‘We are not trying to stuff religion down their throats.’ The support given over the past 15 months has extended far beyond the festive jollifications, with social media used to find winter clothes for people arriving in Ireland in shorts and flip-flops. The list of needs met has included baby baths, fridges, shoes, sterilisers.
‘The generosity was unreal as it became apparent that the protests were by a small minority. The vast majority of people wished the asylum seekers well.’ The name of the organisation – Wicklow Welcomes – was the invention of Tasha Quinn. The line-up of the committee is described by the founder/chairwoman as ‘fluid’ but it includes Louise Rooney as vice-chairwoman and treasurer Reverend Jack Kinkead along with Nomi Fitzpatrick, Caroline Besancon, Lauren Keogh and ever cheerful Father Pat O’Rourke.
Since May of last year they have been extending their welcome to refugees assigned to the Rathmore holiday village in Ashford, which has doubled the number of people involved to around the 200 mark. The beautiful stone-built cottages in Rathmore are well kitted out but, the residents who have no cars of their own are effectively in the middle of nowhere, living up a 750- metre long driveway, half an hour’s walk from the nearest shop.
Wicklow Welcomes has helped set up transport, schooling, GP’s, PPS numbers and English language classes, as such practical matters are largely overlooked by the Department of Justice. The exercise has helped to ensure that those who arrive seeking shelter and freedom are greeted as individuals rather than as a faceless mass. Regular coffee mornings in the parish centre beside the Roman Catholic church in Wicklow allow locals and asylum seekers rub shoulders.
Emma has discovered that this cosmopolitan bunch, thrown together in desperate circumstances, includes many inspirational individuals. Through Wicklow Welcomes she has expanded her own horizons by making the acquaintance of people from Albania, Georgia, Zimbabwe, Bolivia, Guatemala, Nigeria, Syria - she reckons that 18 nationalities are represented at the Grand Hotel. Many have traumatic first-hand tales to tell of rape, torture and death threats endured before they fled their homelands. Two of them – one from Mozambique and the other from South Africa – made a hugely positive impression when Emma introduced them to a woman in business gathering at Brook Lodge.
‘Any asylum seeker I have met is so eager to get on with their life,’ Emma Kitson observes. ‘It is deeply frustrating for them to be wallowing in a system that takes so long to get going. A lot of these people would contribute a lot to our county if allowed to stay.’
ANY ASYLUM SEEKER I HAVE MET IS SO EAGER TO GET ON WITH THEIR LIFE. IT IS DEEPLY FRUSTRATING TO BE WALLOWING IN A SYSTEM THAT TAKES SO LONG TO GET GOING