{"id":178133,"date":"2025-11-13T08:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T08:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/178133\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T08:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T08:14:08","slug":"families-at-citywest-ipas-centre-tell-of-ongoing-harassment-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/178133\/","title":{"rendered":"Families at Citywest IPAS centre tell of ongoing \u2018harassment\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Families living at IPAS<\/a> accommodation in Dublin<\/a> that was at the centre of violent protests last month are enduring ongoing \u201cintimidation\u201d and \u201charassment\u201d by people gathered at the entrance, they and local school staff say. <\/p>\n

The harassment has included being filmed and verbally abused coming and going from the Citywest<\/a> international protection accommodation service centre. It has also included children being told to \u201cgo home\u201d and having items like footballs taken from them, and witnessing their parents being called derogatory names. <\/p>\n

Alleged victims say the abuse has increased since the riots outside the centre in late October.<\/p>\n

Ronan Murphy, a second class teacher at Scoil Aoife community national school in Citywest, says children continue to bring stories of harassment to the morning \u201cnews\u201d segment of the school day, when children share what they have noticed in the previous few days. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am hearing stories from the children about violent things that are happening in the community. They often don\u2019t really understand what\u2019s happening … There is an awareness that there are \u2018scary people with masks\u2019 and I have heard reports on the violence,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

One Ukrainian<\/a> mother, who wished to remain anonymous, says garda\u00ed failed to intervene when her car was circled by five people, some waving Irish flags, as she returned to the Citywest hotel with her 12-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

During the alleged incident at about 8.30pm on November 3rd she says protesters blocked her car\u2019s entry to the hotel.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Dog-whistle racism\u2019: How far-right claims of protecting women justify abuse of immigrantsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cThey surround our car and they shout; \u2018Get out. This is our street\u2019 and \u2018You bitch\u2019 and my daughter hears this and my daughter scared and started cry.\u201d At least three people were filming her car as they blocked the entrance, she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe man video my car, my car number. My daughter was sitting in the back and she is feeling not safe. They take a video close up of her face.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said she beeped her horn to try to attract garda\u00ed standing nearby to help her. She then got out of her car and approached a garda, asking them to move those blocking the entrance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ask them, \u2018Help me please, help for my daughter\u2019 and they don\u2019t move. They only told me to drive slowly. But how can I drive slowly when they put their feet under the wheels [of the car]?\u201d.<\/p>\n

She returned to her car and began filming those filming her \u201cas defence\u201d she says. The situation escalated. They began kicking her car, she says. When a garda then approached she says she was told to stop filming the protesters and to delete her video.<\/p>\n

She has submitted a three-page complaint to Clondalkin Garda station outlining what happened and asking: \u201cWhat assistance can garda\u00ed patrolling the Citywest Hotel area provide to residents in situations where there is a direct threat to their safety?\u201d <\/p>\n

She also asked \u201cHow can Citywest residents protect themselves and their children in such circumstances?\u201d<\/p>\n

She has had no response from the garda\u00ed yet.<\/p>\n

An African father, who also wished to remain anonymous, has lived in the Citywest area for over a decade. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven before [the riots] racism is on the rise, but since then it is like hunting season against coloured people, the gloves are off. There is more abuse of children \u2013 like white teenagers attacking coloured kids. If kids are out playing football teenagers come and take the ball, say: \u2018This is our country. F**k off.\u201d <\/p>\n

Immigrant parents are less likely to let their children play outside alone in recent week, he says. He knows of an Irish-born teenager of Sudanese heritage who was \u201cbadly beaten\u201d recently. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried with the Garda, they say there is nothing they can do. We ask what can we do when our kids are attacked. Our kids are saying that they don\u2019t feel safe.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA Garda van set of fire outside Citywest hotel on the first night of the recent riots. Photograph: Colin Keegan\/Collins <\/p>\n

During the riots over two nights \u2013 October 21st and 22nd \u2013 school attendance dropped as parents kept children home, says Mr Murphy.<\/p>\n

In the following days he heard children discuss the riots. \u201cThey told me about fires and people throwing things. I do get the sense the age group I teach don\u2019t understand it\u2019s directed at them, which is kind of reassuring but on another level it\u2019s not something they should be subjected to or be sharing for their \u2018news\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are trying to make the children feel safe in school as a priority \u2013 attendance is a big emphasis in the school \u2013 to be happy here, but something like this is not helpful. <\/p>\n

\u201cI do not see why anyone verbally abusing families is allowed anywhere near the hotel. These are horror stories and I am appalled that kind of situation would be allowed to arise at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Garda\u00ed have been contacted for comment. <\/p>\n

A spokesman for the Department of Justice, which oversees management of IPAS and Ukrainian refugee accommodation, said: \u201cThe safety and wellbeing of all residents and staff at the [Citywest] campus is the highest priority for the Department. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are working closely with An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na, keeping security arrangements at the campus under ongoing regular review.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Families living at IPAS accommodation in Dublin that was at the centre of violent protests last month are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":178134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[956,9,10,81470,13169,52,18,13,14,6,19,56,17,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,2264],"class_list":{"0":"post-178133","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-citywest-hotel","12":"tag-department-of-justice","13":"tag-dublin","14":"tag-eire","15":"tag-featured-news","16":"tag-featurednews","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-ie","19":"tag-immigration","20":"tag-ireland","21":"tag-latest-news","22":"tag-latestnews","23":"tag-main-news","24":"tag-mainnews","25":"tag-news","26":"tag-top-stories","27":"tag-topstories","28":"tag-ukraine-crisis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115541394539964088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}