Travellers protest over housing of Syrian refugees

PROTEST Members of the McDonagh family protesting outside Mayo County Council offices today.

Edwin McGreal
Castlebar

A TRAVELLER family in Castlebar is protesting over the housing of Syrian refugees in the town.
Members of the McDonagh family feel they should be given preference over the Syrian refugees due to the length of time they have been on a local housing waiting list. They are staging a protest outside Mayo County Council’s headquarters in Castlebar today.
The protest comes one day after the McDonaghs forced the council to abort an effort to house a Syrian family in the Cois Abhann housing estate in Castlebar.
The house the Syrian refugees were due to move into is next door to Kathleen McDonagh, who argues her three sons should be housed first.
The Mayo News understands that gardaí and county council staff attended at the scene in Cois Abhann, on the old Turlough Road, yesterday after a stand off ensued. The Syrian family did not move into the house in Cois Abhann and are currently being housed temporarily elsewhere in the town.
Speaking to The Mayo News this afternoon outside Áras an Chontae, Kathleen McDonagh said her sons had been waiting too long for accommodation.
“My children all live in Castlebar, and they’re living illegally in ten-foot caravans with their wives and children in the N5 Business Park in Moneen because the council cannot put up accommodation for them.
“It’s amazing how they cannot give it (the house in Cois Abhann) to proper Irish citizens and they can give it to other people.
“I’ve nothing against the (Syrian) people. They have to live and they have to get accommodation as well, but what I’m saying is my children were reared in Castlebar. The council should look after their own Irish before they take other people in and look after them,” she said.
Kathleen’s son Jason said he and his family do not want to live in a caravan.
“We don’t want to be there. It’s just shameful that the council won’t help us out because we’re proper Irish citizens, we were reared in the town,” he said.
As part of the State’s commitment to accept refugees and asylum seekers from war-torn Syria, a number of families were transferred to homes in Mayo this week. Three other families arrived in Castlebar this week, and The Mayo News understands those allocations went smoothly. A total of 17 Syrian families will be housed in Mayo by the end of this year.