The Newtownmountkennedy asylum protest

Special post

This is a special post, stepping away from my normal housing policy and research issues, to give a personal account of the opposition to the proposed accommodation centre for International Protection Applicants in Trudder House, Newtownmountkennedy. I want to emphasise that what follow is not based on any academic research. I am also not a journalist, and none of the below has been fact checked. This is just my impressions of what has been going on, with the sole purpose of informing people who might be trying to get their heads around this new turn in Irish politics. Finally, I don’t attempt to pass judgement or express my own view in this piece. It’s also much longer than my usual posts. Normal service will return on May 10^th.

Many of you will be aware that there have been protests against new International Protection Applicant accommodation which is currently being constructed at Trudder House, Newtownmoundkennedy, Co. Wicklow. The centre is being built in what I believe is a HSE owned building, which has been empty for some time, and will accommodate (in tent type structures), up to 160 asylum seekers.

I live in a nearby town and have been following this issue closely since it first kicked off around a month or six weeks ago. I visit Newtown regularly for shopping etc. and am also a member of the local Facebook group. On Sunday April 28^th I spent the day observing a large protest which took place there, just a few days after controversial events at Trudder house where protesters were arrested (and later charged).

The politics of asylum and migration is not my area of expertise. This is just a first person account of my perspective on what has been going on, the aim of which is to give insight into the opposition to this new accommodation centre, which is likely of relevance to understanding how this issue is playing out nationally. I don’t have a comprehensive overview of the issue or claim to be able to give a full account – it’s just my sense of what is going on based on the debates on Facebook, spending time in Newtown regularly, and observing the demonstration mentioned above.

I want to emphasise that the purpose of this piece is not to pass judgement etc., but to inform people who are interested in this political issue.

A brief bit of context. Newtown is a small town of around 3,000. It is a typical Irish town in that it consists of one main street with a bunch of housing estates popping up around it, without any rhyme or reason. Like everywhere in North Wicklow, the population is growing quickly, mainly via the construction of new housing estates on the outskirts of the town. Roundwood, Ashford, Greystones, Delgany etc. are all going through a similar process. A lot of the residents of these new estates tend to be families who already have young children, which means childcare, schools, GPs etc. all come under pressure. There is basically no public transport to speak of, so everyone is more or less car dependent. As far as I know, a lot of fairly basic services are absent, such as dentist, library etc. I imagine most people travel to nearby Wicklow Town, Greystones or Bray for many of those services.

Since it first emerged that an IPA centre was being planned, there has been a significant level of opposition expressed. There are lots of different reasons for opposition articulated, I’ll focus on some of the most common.

First, it is claimed that services in Newtown are inadequate for the current population From this, two things follow. First, that instead of building accommodation for asylum seekers, the Government should be investing in services for existing residents (this view is sometimes expressed with reference to the fact that there have been various attempts to access Trudder House for the local community over the years, all of which have been rejected on the grounds that the building is unsuitable). Second, that the asylum seekers themselves will not have adequate access to services.

This second point relates to the view that it is inadequate, or even inhumane, to put 160 people in tents on the outskirts of a small town like this, with no real supports in place (I don’t know what supports are planned, but this is a view expressed very often). It is hard to argue against this point. Trudder house is very much on the outskirts of the village. It is on a country road surrounded by farms. I’d say it’s about 10 to 15 minute walk to the village, but if memory serves me there are no street lights on the road. It would not be a great place to be, especially without access to a car. And it is very hard to see how people can access employment or services from the location.

As will be obvious, this type of argument is not anti-migrant as such, but rather claims to want a better and more humane asylum system. The above views are sometimes, indeed often, accompanied by statements along the lines of ‘this isn’t about racism’ etc.

The other major bone of contention is around safety. A very commonly expressed view is that the protests are about keeping the town safe or even ‘protecting women and children’. The fact that Trudder House is quite near the GAA pitches is often mentioned, as this would be one of the main activities for children. The way this safety issue is expressed varies. Sometimes it is along the familiar lines of ‘unvetted men’, and references are made to violent crimes, often of a sexual nature, committed by asylum seekers in other towns. Other times it is of a more general nature, for example wanting to keep the town somewhere people feel safe to walk home from the pub at night. While the claims that the opposition to Trudder House are ‘not about racism’ are a constant refrain, the specific reason why it raises a safety issue is typically not stated. The unavoidable implication is that asylum seekers are more likely to commit violent crime, especially against women and children.

I want to highlight this safety issue because it is extremely important for some people. Initially, I found this very hard to understand as I myself cannot relate to this at all. The reality is that there are people, and by the looks of it a reasonably large cohort, who genuinely feel fear at the prospect of asylum seekers being placed in Newtown. Some of these people are migrants themselves, including non-European migrants. I have been reminded that the term xenophobia means, first and foremost, fear of the other, rather than hatred of the other. I am not suggesting that this fear is a legitimate concern, but I think it is crucial to understanding the nature of what is happening. Moreover, the fact that, from what I understand, Trudder House is exclusively to host men is a massive part of the issue. There appears to be a very strong view that such a large concentration of single men, with no access to employment etc, will inevitably lead to issues like crime, and reference is often made to examples, such as in nearby Wicklow Town, where it is alleged this has been the case.

Linked to the issue of fear is a kind of mutual incomprehension between people who oppose Trudder House and people who don’t. For people who fear for their safety, they genuinely cannot believe that there are others who don’t share their concerns. Therefore, they appear to think that those who claim there are no safety concerns are being disingenuous.

Amongst all this are more direct references to anti-immigration politics, such as the idea that the Government are traitors and that they are more concerned with immigrants than with ‘the Irish’. These kind of views appear to be held by a minority, but are usually peppered through comment threads on Facebook and the like.

The two sets of views set out so far are mobilized to lend moral legitimacy to the protest. Protestors can claim, on the basis of these positions, that they are (a) demanding a better/different asylum system with better services for both asylum seekers and existing residents and (b) that they are ‘defending’ the town.

Layered on top of all this is the question of how it has been handled by Government. The perspective of protesters and those in opposition to Trudder House is very clear on this. There is a strong view that the Government have been very underhand in trying to railroad the accommodation centre, hiding information etc. There is plenty of truth to this view. There has been little to no consultation and information was very slow in coming out, such that it does appear that withholding information was an intentional strategy to limit opposition (I don’t know whether this is true or not, but that’s what it looks like).

I think it is unlikely that more consultation would have led to a different outcome, however. The site of Trudder House is obviously terrible and has been chosen for the sole reason that there is nowhere else. A consultation process would have unearthed a million reasons why it should not be constructed, all the while ignoring that there is effectively no alternative.

On the other hand, some of the ways people construe the role of government are bizarre. I recall one Facebook post in particular, where someone expressed incredulity that they had rang the offices of two local TDs who are ministers (this was before Harris became Taoiseach), but that they weren’t able to speak to the Ministers. This was interpreted as proof that the Government don’t care about the people etc.

There are two further, and related issues, we need to add into the mix.

First, those who oppose the IPAS centre very often state that they are ‘not racists’ and that they are being unfairly characterized as racists. This refrain is really, really common. It is also used as a kind of blanket way to dismiss any criticism of the protests, because the view is that all criticism is predicated on the assumption the protestors are racist. The accusations of racism, such as they are, thus get mobilized as a way of, paradoxically vindicating the protestors, who can present themselves as being unfairly tarred as racist and xenophobes.

Second, the issue of policing has come into this since the protest towards the end of April, at which protestors were arrested and, if I have the details right, pepper spray was used. I wasn’t there on the night and don’t want to get into the details, which are disputed (although I have seen various videos, and it was discussed on the Katy Hanon show on RTE this week). For local people (as opposed to non-local activists), being confronted by the Guards has been something of a shock. Presumably, many of these people have not been involved in civil disobedience before, and don’t seem to be aware that the Guards routinely use force against protestors engaging in civil disobedience (something I can attest to from personal experience!). Therefore, they are incredulous that rather than ‘standing with the people’, the Guards are ‘attacking them’. The observation is also made that the local Garda station is severely understaffed, and that often times there is no one there. Thus the feeling is that resources are available to prevent local people from protesting, but not for dealing with crime.

The external activists then dramatize the issue of police ‘violence’ to an almost comical degree, with copious references to the Black and Tans, and Drew Harris orchestrating all manner of evils, just as he supposedly did in Northern Ireland. I’ve no idea how seriously anyone takes these ludicrous claims.

The issue of external activists brings us to the protest that took place on Sunday, April 28^th, discussion of which gives a further sense of the politics of all this. The protest assembled on one side of the town, marched through the town, and made its way towards Trudder House. My perspective is that it was a very large crowd, given the size of the town. I won’t hazard a guess as to the numbers, but it was large enough to take a good few minutes to pass by. The attendance was quit diverse, with lots of families, older people etc. There were quite a lot of kids. It is impossible to know how many people were locals and how many had made their way to Newtown to take part, but it certainly appeared to be mainly locals. There were few signs or placards identifying any political groupings, with the exception of the ‘sovereign people’ (I briefly looked up their website which was a mish mash of conspiracy theory type stuff). Quite a lot of people were waving the Irish flag.

There were some people holding placards with more explicit political slogans. One about stopping the ‘plantation’ of Ireland and the ‘replacement’ of Irish people (see photo above) was at the head of the demonstration. There were also a few ‘Irish lives matter’ placards. I’m not very familiar with the slogans and ideas of the far right in Ireland, however, so there may well have been some I missed. There were small groups of masked people, mainly young men.

As the protest made its way through the town, it was hard to really get a sense of how many of the by-standers where supportive. I spoke to one person who declined to comment (‘think twice before you say nothing’, was his pithy aphorism), but I suspect he was not supportive of the protest, but not keen to voice that view.

Indeed, I have heard quite a few people say they are wary of speaking out in support of Trudder House and its soon to be residents. This is something I myself have felt. I think there are probably two things going here. First, there is a degree of aggression, heightened emotion etc. which can make you feel wary of putting yourself in the line of fire. Second, the use of Trudder House for accommodating International Protection Applicants, as mentioned above, is very difficult to defend. The only arguments in support of it that can be put forward are: (a) it’s the least worst option in terms of accommodating asylum seekers, or a last resort given better alternatives have been exhausted; or (b) yes it is crap but on don’t oppose it for fear of opening the can of worm that is anti-immigration politics.

Anyway, when the protest was approaching Trudder house it became apparent that the road was blocked by the Guards. This meant the protest had to stop before reaching Trudder House. At this point, what appeared to me to be the protest organisers (almost certainly locals), used the megaphone to urge people to move back towards the town. The vast majority of people in attendance followed this instruction. However, a small number (I’d say around 40) of protesters remained at the barricades. Some of these encouraged the protestors who were leaving to remain and ‘stand their ground’. The obvious implication was they should try and get past the barrier. Very few people, if any, heeded this advice, and so the protest moved off leaving the 40 or so protestors remaining at the barricades. My impression was that these were composed mainly of people who are committed, non-local anti-immigration activists, as well as a small number of young men, some of whom were likely local, and who appeared to be enjoying the prospect of winding the Guards up. There were various small groups of activists congregated, obviously discussing how to respond to this turn of events, but it seemed to me they more or less realized there wasn’t going to be any further confrontation. I left at this point so I have no idea what happened thereafter.

On the other side of the coin, there has been some expression of solidarity with the soon to be new residents of Trudder House. And certainly there is lots of concern about the protests, and some people are quite upset at what has been happening. People who want to support the new arrivals are getting oragnised to do so. It has to be said that those who welcome the accommodation centre at Trudder House are not as visible, for example on social media, as those who oppose it. Whether or not this reflects the level of local opposition accurately is not something I can comment on.

A few final remarks to conclude this discussion. First, I have seen the view expressed online that the whole Newtown protest is orchestrated by far right outsiders. There are certainly anti-immigration activists involved. However, my impression (and it is just an impression), is that this is hopelessly naive. It seems abundantly clear that there is significant local opposition, and some local people are actively involved in organizing the protests.

Having said that, it does not follow from this that a large number of local people are very committed to anti-immigrant politics. On the contrary, they seem to be very keen to point out at every turn that Newtown is a very welcoming place for everyone etc. The opposition does seem to be very focused on this one specific aspect of migration policy. This begs the question of to what extent that opposition is underpinned by racist, or racially based, assumptions or beliefs. It’s hard to comment on that without being able to have a fuller discussion with people who oppose Trudder house. For some people, there is obviously racist assumptions at play, especially the assumption that asylum seekers are more likely to commit violent crime, and that local people have a duty to protect women and children. How widespread this kind of sentiment is is unclear to me.

Second, it is interesting to examine some of the interventions from local political representatives. I’m sure there has been engagement from politicians of different stripes, including local independents, especially given the upcoming local elections. However, the only stuff that has come across my radar has been from the Social Democrats and Sinn Fein. It’s interesting to compare their interventions as contrasting ways of engaging with protests of this nature. In the interest of brevity, I’ll focus on Facebook posts in the Newtown Facebook community group by Jennifer Whitmore and John Brady, Soc Dem and SF TDs (respectively) for Wicklow. Whitmore’s perspective was, in my view, quite a nuanced, and indeed courageous, position which expressed concern at the nature of the opposition, and its potential effects on the town, but also sought to listen to the concerns of residents, which she admitted she didn’t full understand. I have pasted the full FB post below.

As you can see from John Brady’s intervention, pasted in full below, his approach was quite different. He emphasized the need for a better immigration system, put more focus on the Government’s failure, and did not express any concerns about the opposition to Trudder House. His post could be interpreted as legitimizing and even supporting the protests, although he is careful to not go too far in that regard.

This piece has ended up being much longer than I anticipated, but hopefully people will find it informative. I have the unsettling feeling that we might be witnessing the beginnings of a major turning point in Irish politics. Hopefully that is not the case.

Jennifer Whitmore, Soc Dems TD, post in Newtownmounkennedy Facebook community group

I've been reading the posts on the forum in relation to the work at Trudder House. And i just wanted to try to understand some of the comments and fears a bit better, so thought I'd use the forum to engage a bit on it. (I’m also honestly hoping this doesn’t go horribly wrong! but it doesn’t feel right for me to not engage on the issue).

First thing to say is that I'm definitely not here to back the Governments handling of the wider issue refugee and asylum seeker settlement, as it has been a mess and has resulted in problems all over the country.

However, part of being a relatively wealthy country is that people will try to come here to live, whether they are fleeing persecution or just trying to do better for themselves and their families. The Irish are no strangers to that... So, how can it be managed better when a town like NTMK is asked to host people?

I suppose the first thing to say is that we have no actual idea of when, who, how, how many (or even if) Trudder House will be used. I know no more than any of the other reps that have posted on here. But from what’s happening on the ground and being reported here, it is def clear that something is underway.

A lot of fear, and talk of needing to protect Newtown, has been expressed online, but I’m honestly not sure of where that is coming from. And I want to understand it better.

I am worried that very charged issues like this can really tear communities apart.. and I would hate to see that for Newtown. it can also open areas up to outsiders coming in with the sole intention of spreading fear and hate, and that is also something we want to try to avoid completely. .

So (deep breath), lets try see if we can chat this through in a respectful way to see if I can get a sense of the reasons some are worried and if there’s anything that can be done to alleviate that. I will try to answer as much as possible but I'll have to drop off to do normal Saturday family type things too...but my input may be on and off...

John Brady, SF TD, post in Newtownmounkennedy Facebook community group

I am aware of the information doing the rounds that Department are carrying out an assessment of River Lodge House, Trudder, Newtownmountkennedy.

There has been a complete lack of engagement by the Department around this and the secrecy over the matter is wholly unacceptable. Newtownmountkennedy already has a lack of community facilities and there have been no audits carried out by the department in relation to services and amenities in the local area and more importantly identifying where there are gaps, and there are many!

I along with my colleagues in Sinn Fein and others fought hard to get River Lodge House, Trudder handed over for use as a community facility and this was kicked back and the reasons given were due to the condition of the building. Newtownmountkennedy as one of the fastest growing towns needs community amenities. It is concerning that River Lodge House, Trudder is being looked at for any other use.

I have previously spoken at length in the Dail about the government’s mismanagement, and lack of a coherent and efficient policy around immigration. Also about communities receiving contradictory, and often last-minute information from government and local authorities about developing situations that affect them.

Again and again, we have seen how the government approach is not working - we need proper communications with communities. The Shambolic approach from the government from the start which is continuing to this day must end.

We need a fair, efficient and enforced immigration system. I and my party Sinn Féin believe Ireland, like every other country, must have control over its borders and must have a fair, efficient, and enforced immigration system.

I will raise these concerns further regarding River Lodge House, Trudder with Minister Roderic O’Gorman. There is a need for River Lodge House, Trudder to be handed back to the local community.