Roscrea protests: ‘We can’t get medical appointments, so we can’t take any more, but we don’t want any far right activists here’ – The Irish Times
by happyhigherb
Roscrea protests: ‘We can’t get medical appointments, so we can’t take any more, but we don’t want any far right activists here’ – The Irish Times
by happyhigherb
37 comments
The government response has been woeful, and as reactionary as it comes. Buying a disused hotel for the community, rather than using that one for the refugees, and keeping refugees in the perfectly functioning hotel that cancelled events and rooms. All the while demonising the townspeople for kicking up a fuss about it. The same mention of a medical backlog was in Killarney too.
Medical appointment thing isn’t related is it? That’s an issue across the country with a lack of GPs and has been for a while.
EDIT: As people seem to have an issue with my post. I don’t doubt that refugees will put additional strain on the local services but the primary issue already existed. You’re basically complaining about someone throwing a few buckets of water into a house that already been flooded.
>We can’t get medical appointments
Why weren’t they protesting about this with the same fervor *before* they thought they were going to see new asylum seekers? (EDIT: Still waiting for someone to tackle this question)
I guarantee if the asylum seekers left in the morning there wouldn’t be another peep about medical appointments even though it wouldn’t be solved. They just want to punch down and harass men, women and children entering an asylum center.
A demand increase with stagnant supply will make a situation worse. That’s just basic economics.
Hope the residents remember this when it comes time to vote
I cannot get to see my GP so I’m going to scream abuse at women and kids accessing temporary accommodation
Definitely not racist. 👍
>We can’t get medical appointments, so we can’t take any more, but we don’t want any far right activists here
Fine. Cease emigration to Canada, Australia, etc. They have the same problems there too.
LOL@the downvotes
For all those screaming “racists” you should know that Roscrea already has over 600 asylum seekers and refugees in two centres in the town – plus many more in private rented accommodation with no issues or protests.
Racists don’t drop off toys.
This is about an unfair burden being placed on the town of Roscrea. Nearly all of Tipperary’s asylum seekers and refugees are in Roscrea.
I hope the Roscrea community birth control effort is going well if they are so concerned about town population size
Why are they complaining. They are just going to vote for the same government, causing them issues…so why bother..
This is a very important distinction to make between genuine protestors who’re seeing their local area slip into decline due to govt. inaction & lack of services & the right wing element driven by racist rhetoric from online grifters.
If genuine people aren’t taken into account then the govt. runs the risk of polarising people further. This can’t go on, I think the only real answer is a change of govt. the past 4 yrs has been a damn shitshow.
Some really disgusting comments on here about Roscrea people.
The contempt some Redditors have for people in working class and rural areas is unreal. They look down on working class or rural people.
Does it not occur to people that maybe they can’t afford to emigrate or don’t want to? Or maybe they have some concerns? That rural areas have seen services cut, post offices closed, hospitals and emergency rooms are shuttered, Garda stations, banks gone too and haven’t seen much else replace that.
Some rural areas are losing so many young people that GAA clubs are amalgamating. Clubs who are massive rivals or were even in the 1950s or 1980s (high points for emigration), could still field teams. They are neglected big time and are the people who get very little from the government.
The shouting and roaring is unacceptable that is clear. No excuse for intimidation. On the other hand it seems any kind of control is decried as racist. There’s multiple commenters on here who openly say and think they want open borders whatever the consequences.
Very few of these asylum claims are going into leafy upper class areas. The governments attitude is extremely arrogant and secretive. It’s turning in public relations disaster after disaster.
Both sides are equally to blame in my view. The far right and whatever you call the other side who pretend to hold this morally superior view while in fact it’s creating a massive amount of tension and calling anyone who has an alternative view a racist.
Just as a final point, the next election I don’t think anyone can predict it. Only that FG and the Greens are going to get hammered. No idea for FF as they are very good at mobilizing their base.
I think the Greens need to get ready for a political wipe out same that happened to Labour in 2011. I’ve never seen such an unpopular party.
These far right pricks high jacking any protest they can find are a real threat to our democracy. Mindless assholes the lot of them.
How selfish of Roscrea people to want doctors.
Where does this end ? , when do we finally say we can’t take anymore, ? or does the government just start enforcing accommodation for refugees in our own homes.
They’ll be branded far right anyway wether or not the actual loo las show up
I think it’s useless to deny that the government has let too many fundamental issues go unaddressed across the country. Access to GPs and dentists is awful in some places and it seems like every other newly trained medical professional is emigrating because of the quality of life issues, no visible action taken. Garda stations closing down everywhere, the sense that towns and cities have been left to feral low lives, no visible action taken apart from trying to get 50 year olds to become guards. A massive teacher shortage yet young teachers can’t get a permanent job. Young people can’t buy a home. None of this is anything to do with immigration but unfortunately, again inaction by the government has allowed them to become an outlet for all this frustration.
Blaming people at the sharp end of all of this rather than utter mismanagement of the basic expectations that we legitimately have of the government is part of the problem. They slither the responsibility off and smirk as everyone focuses on the reprehensible behaviour of some local people and go off to do another consultation about tweaking the constitution in ways that nobody really cares very much about.
This government is so fucking embarrassing
It’s a real rock and a hard place job isn’t it?
You can have no issue with immigration. AND stand up and say local services can’t handle any more people in an area.
But apparently that makes you racist.
In fairness, the video footage of the ‘protest’ does give a lot of weight to much of these people being racists. It gives real Holy Cross vibes.
That isn’t to say that there are real and ongoing issues with this unprecedented clusterfuck. I’d just rather see the locals actually wholly reject the racists (like they did in Ringsend).
You’d have though Irish politicians would have learned a lesson from Sweden, Germany, France and the UK when it comes to mass migration.
Clearly not.
About time people started to rise up about the negligence of the regime and it’s complete failure to hit any target, even simple ones. Just don’t blame the migrating people who have been dragged into this by Government non-competence.
The smear campaign is working lads..
Seeing the protesters speak in the news I find it contradictory what they’re saying and I think their protests are misplaced.
On one hand they are saying that they don’t like seeing the trauma that the kids are experiencing because of their protests and the scuffles. They’re giving out about losing a hotel (local amenity) and lack of services.
That sounds to me like they need to be protesting against the government, all of these issues point back to governmental failures. Why protest against the refugees? They aren’t responsible for the lack of services in the area.
Hotel owners taking a government contract to cater for refugees instead of the general public? Protest against the hotel owners maybe?
Look, if the problem really is about local services not being provided, why not protest local government or the Dáil? Why is the target the refugees instead of the people making the decisions? When I see these people protesting outside where the decisions are made instead of where people live, I’ll start to believe it’s about more than not liking foreigners.
Protesting against your area being expected to yake far more than an equitable share of refugees while receiving no additional support does not make someone or a community anti immigration racist or even right wing.
However, these protests do attract the far fight fringe spits quite possible, and indeed “normal” to actively protest against both. One dors not mean defaulting to the other and the “centre” is not a “bad place”.
Places like Roscea, relatively rural, low population, not exactly wealthy, with limited resources have borne far more of their fair share of refugees, particularly those in emergency accommodation centres.
You have seen similar issues in West Clare, Kerry, Mayo. Areas were big chunks of their populations are refugees in emergency accommodation. You have also seen then being sneered at by the media and politicans.
I heard Paul Murphy pontificating about Roscrea and talking about emergency accommodation centre near him in Tallaght is working well with the community with no issues. No one pulled him on the fact that Tallaght has a population of 77,000 or that
Roscrea has a population of less than 6,000 people.
600 refugees in Tallaght is like 48 in Roscrea.. 600 in Roscrea is like 7,700 in Tallaght..
Roscrea currently has 2 refugees centres with a total refugee population of around 1500 to 1600 they are now adding an additional 600+ taking total refugees population to 2200.. in a town of less than 6000 people.
That’s like Tallaght having 19,000 refugees and being asked to take an additional 7,700.
This isn’t about anyone immigration or anto refugees it’s about certain towns villages and counties being used as dumping grounds where refugees can be put and left… How any attempt to protest results in sneering commentary, cries of racism and far right.
Eamon Ryan spoke last week about equal spread.. why isn’t he condemned as far right or racist or sneered at ??
Real “I’m not racist but…” energy.
The problem is the government. Always has been. These problems won’t be fixed by blocking refugees seeking refuge
Maybe it’s time to consider making more places available for GP and commonly needed specialties and nursing training available for lower points but only if those given ‘lower point places’ make a commitment to working in Ireland for x number of years.
I don’t think lower points means poor nurses and doctors. The geniuses with their 7 As can still go abroad and get their specialist posts and training but the GP and nurses shortage would be addressed by the kinds of competent individuals who get into those professions all around the world where points races don’t keep students out.
Same thing happened in Clare but the GPs were not taking new patients due to medical cards and GP cards. My current GP was not accepting new patients before the influx but the centre has been taking new patients recently because they hired extra staff and got a nurse who speaks Russian. Could definitely argue they should have been staffed up quicker but it is not really a problem anymore.
This is the truth that a lot of people seem unwilling to accept and just tar everyone involved as racists.
The ordinary people seeing their area turn into a shithole because of govt inactivity/incompetence are not the same as the Phillip Dwyers et al that come down screeching about Ireland being full and intimidating women and children, they are the racists.
Fair play to the ordinary people of Roscrea making it a priority to seperate the two. Too many towns/villages where this stuff happened and the locals basically welcomed the far right in as extra numbers to the protest.
I live in a small town. Our local golf club had holiday homes which are now housing Ukrainian refugees. All fine. Old hotel has been renovated for refugees. Still fine & no one has been protesting BUT all these extra people who are vulnerable have been added to the local population without any additional services.
The Medical center is down to 2 doctors and can’t recruit any more as none available. The two doctors we have won’t be able to endure the pressure they’re under for ever. They haven’t assigned extra Public Health Nurses or social workers.
Local Schools have enrolled the children and trying to support them with their additional particular needs. The schools were already under pressure, and as a parent of an autistic child I’m well aware of how little support there was available already.
I’m an open minded left-voting adult but how in all fairness does the government think this is all going to go well? Our nearest large hospital is UHL which has been a shitshow for years. I used to be able to ring the doctor & get an appointment for that day or the next, no way at all now. Of course people are going to feel aggrieved.
I think it’s too convenient for the government to brush everything under the carpet by saying “far right lunatics!”.
It’s disingenuous to people that are flagging real concerns and don’t feel listened to.
I do get really annoyed that a handful of actual far right lunatics are trying to “claim” these protests and concerns as their own though. I don’t believe the majority of people are like that.
Grabbing my popcorn for this one.
So go and protest outside Leinster House then instead of making life worse for people who are even more vulnerable.
Can’t we put some refugees in Dalkey / Killiney etc? Why is it always working class areas?
The blame should be placed on the Local Authority, Local Development Companies, government departments and State agencies in these areas with a population below 10,000 for not applying to Rural Regeneration and Development Fund, which would provide the area with funding to improve infrastructure and facilities. So start hounding on your representatives to apply for it and stop harassing asylum seekers who have no control over funding or where they are placed.
[https://www.gov.ie/en/policy-information/c77144-rural-regeneration-and-development-fund/](https://www.gov.ie/en/policy-information/c77144-rural-regeneration-and-development-fund/)
I moved to Meath recently and tried to get a local GP, called basically every practice in the county and all were full, only after about 30 phone calls did I finally find one taking on patients in Ashbourne (40 min drive from me)
This is a severe problem, people are probably going to go untreated and die especially the old and vulnerable