Taken from The Southern Star published Saturday, September 16th, 2000

By Frank O'Donovan

An action group formed in Macroom this week will tell Taoiseach Bertie Ahern during his visit to the town on Thursday that it does not want asylum seekers to be housed in a local hotel which had been bought by the Office of Public Works (OPW).

Angry residents of the area who attended a public meeting on Monday night said the hotel, Lynch's Lodge on the Killarney Road, was unsuitable for housing asylum seekers. They also objected to the number of asylum seekers destined for Macroom, reputedly between 120 and 140, and to the lack of information and consultation with the community by the Government on the issue.

Co-owner of Lynch's Lodge, Mr. Humphrey Lynch, confirmed to The Southern Star this Tuesday that the hotel had been sold to the OPW two weeks ago. It would be handed over to the OPW after September 30. "The OPW was the only bidder that came up with the money at the end of the day," he said. The sale price was close to the rumoured figure of £2.5 million, he added.

Mr. Lynch said that there had been two other offers, one of them from a syndicate in Macroom, but they had come to nothing. The local syndicate had made an offer subject to loan approval and this was unsuitable for Mr. Lynch. The contract with the OPW had been signed two weeks ago.

He added that the future use of the hotel was up to the OPW. If asylum seekers were to be housed there he fully supported the people of Macroom's efforts to have their number reduced.

A crowd of over 300 people filled the auditorium of the Briery Gap Theatre on Monday night and feelings ran high throughout the hour-and-a-half meeting – which was described as the most important meeting to be held in Macroom for the past fifty years. The majority of those who spoke said they did not want asylum seekers to come to Macroom and a number of people urged that drastic action be taken to prevent asylum seekers from being accommodated at Lynch's Lodge.

A public information meeting, to be chaired by officials from the Department of Justice's Directorate of Services for Asylum Seekers, will be held in Macroom on September 26 but there was a strong feeling at the meeting that it would then be too late to prevent asylum seekers coming to Macroom.

Monday night's meeting, which was advertised by posters around the town at the weekend, was called by a group of concerned citizens. It was chaired by Mr. Jerry Gray, owner of the Spar supermarket in the town, and the minutes were taken by Mr. John Collins, chairman of the Lee Valley Enterprise Board. Fianna Fáil councillor Pat O'Connell handed out the microphone to speakers.

Mr. Gray told the meeting that he had no answers to the questions that were likely to be posed at the meeting but he wanted to hear the views of the people who had come along on the proposed accommodation of asylum seekers in Lynch's Lodge. These views would be put to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern when he visited Macroom this Thursday and to the Department of Justice officials on September 26.

Mr. Ahern would be in town to officially open local TD Donal Moynihan's new constituency office at Railway View and he was also to visit Bealick Mill and the Briery Gap Theatre. Another aim of the meeting was to set up a support group, which would be disbanded as soon as the asylum seekers came to town.

Mr. Gray said only two facts were known at present – that the hotel had been bought by the OPW and that asylum seekers were bound for Macroom. It was not known how many were coming or what country or countries they were coming from.

The meeting was then opened to the floor and people from Macroom and its surrounding areas gave their views, the majority of which were opposed to the Government's plans. Catherine O'Sullivan, from Glen Park, Macroom, said that people had barricaded a hotel in Rosslare 155 days ago to prevent asylum seekers from occupying it.

"The people of Macroom can do that. We want our hotel and our jobs back and we should fight this," she said. She added that she was not racist but she could not condone the influx of asylum seekers in such large numbers.

Majella Looney, a nurse from Codrum, said she had been out of work with a back injury for six months. She would be on half-pay from next month. "Can I get a room in Lynch's Lodge? I won't be able to pay my mortgage from next month," she said.

Joanne Watkinson, who lived next to Lynch's Lodge, wanted to know how many children would be accommodated in the hotel and where they would be educated. She was also concerned that an influx of asylum seekers would be bad for tourism in Macroom.

Orla O'Rourke from Oakwood asked if the asylum seekers would be screened for diseases such as AIDS, Malaria and TB prior to coming to Macroom. There had been a recent upsurge in diseases such as TB and Malaria.

Eileen Searls from Kilnamartyra asked if asylum seekers would be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. If they weren't the young people of the Macroom area would be vulnerable.

SAD DAY

Joe Doyle said it was a sad day for Macroom when Lynch's Lodge was sold. He had no problem with refugees who were genuinely badly off but he was concerned at the large numbers that were coming into the country. "How many will come to Macroom next year and the year after that?", he asked.

He added that the Government had "landed a bombshell on Macroom" and that Lynch's Lodge should be closed off. Elaine McSweeney from Clondrohid pointed out that there were only 33 bedrooms in the hotel and how could 120 to 140 asylum seekers be accommodated there.

Eileen Sheehan, from Carrigaphooka, said the people of Macroom should prevent the asylum seekers from coming in. The Government had bought the hotel which meant that it could be a permanent centre for refugees.

This would bring about irreparable changes in Macroom. "It would have been better if the Government had put a prison in the town," she said.

She also hit out at the lack of information that had been given by the Department of Justice. "Every voter in the town should have been written to with details. Instead people in this rural farming community had to rely to rely on gossip and rumour in recent months."

JJ Murphy of Codrum, who works for the Department of Justice, said the people of Macroom should tell the department what they wanted, rather than the other way round. Another employee of the department, Maria Horgan, said that people could see first hand what asylum seekers could do for a town. "If we value our town, we won't leave them in," she said.

A businesswoman from Millstreet said that some Kosovars that had been accommodated there had been trouble makers who had allegedly stolen clothes from lines, stolen from shops and had broken windows. "You couldn't watch them," she said.

The question of planning permission was also raised at the meeting. If planning permission for a change of use was sought, Macroom UDC could oppose it. However, it is understood that the Government brought in measures to ensure that the planning laws were complied with when it came to accommodating asylum seekers.

Anger was also directed at the meeting at Cork North West TDs, Fianna Fáil's Donal Moynihan and Fine Gael's Michael Creed. Mr. Moynihan said he had contacted Justice Minister John O'Donoghue and his officials and had made the views of the people of Macroom known to them. He added that he did not have any more information about the asylum seekers, but he promised to arrange for a deputation from the new action group to meet with Mr. Ahern on Thursday evening.

Mr. Creed said that the Government had given a commitment to the people of Clogheen, Co. Tipperary that there would be prior consultation before asylum seekers were sent to the town. He had first been notified about the Macroom situation by Department of Justice officials on August 21. "This was a poor start in relation to prior consultation and it was presented as a fait accompli," he said.

He added that he had contacted the directorate early this week and had been told by an official, Fergus Black, that no decision had yet been made about the nationality of those bound for Macroom. A figure of between 120 and 140 people, many of them with children, was mentioned.

Health screening was optional but 90 per cent of asylum seekers took it up. He was told that there were no proposals at present to further develop Lynch's Lodge to accommodate more asylum seekers.

VIEWS

One man present demanded that Mr. Creed and Mr. Moynihan make their views known on the prospect of asylum seekers coming to Macroom. Mr. Moynihan said he did not wish to see a large number of them coming to Macroom but a small amount would be acceptable. Mr. Creed had left the auditorium at this stage.

The view was also expressed that a figure of 120 to 140 would be suggested at first by department officials but this would be reduced to 40 or 50 by a process of bargaining. The owners of the hotel, Humphrey and Michael Lynch, were not present at the meeting and some people wanted to know why they had not attended.

Pat McCarthy, of Gurteenroe, Macroom, said the sale of the hotel would be concluded by September 26. "If we wait until then the sale will have gone through. Now is the time to stop it," he said. It was also suggested at the meeting that a legal injunction could be taken out by the people of the town to prevent the sale of the hotel from going through.

Padraig O'Driscoll, a member of the Tourism Committee of the Lee Valley Enterprise Board, said the enterprise board had worked hard in recent years to promote tourism in the town. Its efforts were now paying off and the town was blossoming. The sale of the hotel, which had state of the art banqueting facilities, was "a backward step for the town".

Jack Collins of Cork Street said up to 140 asylum seekers was not on and the people of Macroom would have to decide how many asylum seekers could it afford to accommodate, while keeping the culture of the town intact.

Aidan O'Leary from Dooniskey, Lissarda, said up to five per cent of the existing population of Macroom could be thrust on the community. If local TDs were representing the people they should be able to prevent asylum seekers from coming to Macroom. He also advised that the people of the town should take "any action necessary" to stop asylum seekers from coming in.

He added that people had no objection to genuine asylum seekers, who would integrate into the community after they had been properly screened and processed, but he claimed the majority of those who were coming into Ireland were not genuine asylum seekers.

Martin Coughlan, a member of Macroom UDC and the chairman of the local tidy towns committee, said the group that was formed on Monday night should not be termed a support group but an "action against" group. He suggested that people dump their rubbish at Lynch's Lodge as a sign of protest.

Only a few people spoke in favour of the asylum seekers at the meeting. Macroom curate, Fr. David Herlihy, said people needed to think about the spirit of welcome and he noted that a number of people who had spoken at the meeting were non-Irish, people who had come to the town and were doing very well there.

Brendan Kenneally, a local teacher, said the asylum seekers were human beings who were no better or worse than anybody else. Thousands of Irish people including members of his own family, had gone abroad over the years and had not been treated badly in other countries. "These people should not be treated badly in Macroom," he said.

He added that the meeting needed to clarify if it was opposed to asylum seekers being accommodated in Lynch's Lodge, or opposed to asylum seekers coming to Ireland.

A number of people were asked on Monday night to go on the action committee, the members of which were to be taken from a cross-section of the community. Mr. Gray agreed to chair the committee and other names put forward were Majella Looney, Michael O'Riordan, Catherine O'Sullivan, Joanne Watkinson and Aidan O'Leary.

A deputation made up of members of the committee is to meet with Mr. Ahern on Thursday and outline the views of the people of Macroom on the issue.

Some people present at the meeting wanted it to go on longer so that more people could give their views but the theatre had to be cleared for the scheduled showing of a film. The film, coincidentally, was Final Destination.

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