The Louth East Meath Green Party has welcomed the news that refugees fleeing conflict and persecution have been accommodated in Termonfeckin. This comes at a time when far-right groups have sought to stoke fear in the local community around the housing of these refugees.

The Green Party Rep for Drogheda Rural, Anthony Murphy said:

“I would like to welcome the refugees living in the Triple house to Ireland and to the village of Termonfeckin. I can’t imagine the horrors that these people have experienced and are fleeing, and I applaud their bravery in seeking to better their and their families lives by coming to Ireland. I know the people of Termonfeckin will join in the welcome. Termonfeckin is a special community and village, I trust that the community will help to integrate the refugees.”

There has been an increase recently in protests, demonstrations, and online campaigns against centres housing refugees in Ireland. Far Right groups have sought to leverage fear around housing refugees in communities. They have added to these fears with narratives framing refugees in a negative light. This has been seen at flashpoints such as East Wall in Dublin and in Carlingford in county Louth.

Murphy went on to say:

“We need to challenge this narrative of fear head-on. To combat fear, blasted from a megaphone, we need real and meaningful conversations between the community and our new guests. These conversations take time. There has been a relentless campaign of false urgency to this debate that drives fear. I would like to congratulate Michael Reade on LMFM who did a fantastic interview with some of the refugees recently. Conversations like that help to tone down this atmosphere of panic and fear. We need more of that. I would also like to applaud Mayor Hall for her efforts in forming a local group engaged in positive efforts to integrate the refugees into the village”  

In response to the raise of the far right in Ireland, Anthony said:

“We need to be careful as a society that we don’t allow these Far-Right Racists to gain traction. They are growing in presence online and they are getting organised. We cannot as a society sleepwalk into a new paradigm where hate speech and racism have a place in our politics.”   

Ireland is dealing with an increased demand for accommodation due to the increase in refugees seeking asylum, this has been accelerated in turn by conflicts in Ukraine and the return of the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Speaking about the overall challenge of Housing asylum seekers Anthony went on to say:

“I believe that Minister O’Gorman is doing trojan work in very difficult circumstances to ensure that we can support all asylum seekers. This is a real challenge, but we will continue to seek new accommodation solutions in order to meet our international obligations, and more importantly because it’s the right thing to do.”