@Martin M: That’s not an excuse its a different issue. I don’t know many homeless that were living in the middle of a war.

@Shane Freeney: asylum centres in old hotels are the modern day mother and baby homes, more housing is key to none military like caging of refugees, people who see these buildings as the best way are to me racist and fascist. Sham on you.

@Shane Freeney: Well they’re actually intrinsically linked as you’d expect our government to prioritise the plight of Irish citizens first. Also, these are not Syrian refugees fleeing conflict, they are of African decent. They are not fleeing persecution, in fact if you done some research you would be shocked to discover many hail from holiday resorts that are frequented by westerners.

@Shane Freeney: A very large amount of the people protesting were the “rent a mob” ultra right wingers, not actually connected to Oughterard at all.

@Shane Freeney: Are you for Direct Provision Centres? It appears you are..
Would you not offer to take an asylum seeker or 2 into your home? Because you sound so compassionate and like such a good humanitarian.

@Do the Bort man: how does a person go about renting them?

@Anorack Jack: You might be surprised what I do and have done

@Do the Bort man: Do you really belive that?

People really are affected by what those mad communists put out there.

Didn’t think people were that gullible.

@Shane Freeney: they aren’t seeking refuge from wars. There’s definitely a very small percentage of refugees who are.. But the fact of the matter is, the overwhelming majority are chancers and economic migrants.

@Do the Bort man: how do you know that? Were you on the picket line?

@Chonky Racoon: They They They….. These are people the very same as us….

@Martin M: spot on, another great day for the racists

@Shane Freeney: You take them , start a petition , to get them in to your area . I sign it.

@Chris Mc: You know you can apply to dept to hour an asylum seeker I’m your own home.

@Anorack Jack: Would you not offer yourself to take some in?

And yes I’ve offered before you start on that one.

@Chonky Racoon: Any references to back up the claims you just made?

@Shane Freeney: And yet there are many peaceful countries between ireland and there. Why risk their lives traveling so far? Honest question.

@Gazza Lazza: Oh I already did that, saved her from poverty, she robbed me blind and fleeced the place. Tried reporting it to the GardaÍ but they didn’t want to get involved even though it was an illegal immigrant.
I could’ve got myself into trouble for harbouring an Alien!
Racism doesn’t come in to these issues, people need to be vetted and processed much quicker and then the chancers and thieves of which there are many should be booted out instantly when found out but instead we have the do gooder lefty libs who put the genuine asylum seekers at risk and to the back of the Q because of the opportunists.
Get real and stop generalising when it comes to the true importance of this issue.

@Martin M: Not asylum seekers fault that there’s homelessness. That’s squarely on FF and FG

@Martin M: You’re spreading lies without proof. You have no idea where these people were coming from.

@Anorack Jack: This is the most idiotic argument and people keep falling for it. Do you live in the Connemara Gateway hotel ‘Jack’? do you? Is somebody trying to put asylum seekers in your air BNB?

@Martin M: Hi Martin. Can you please tell me how you know who was going to be placed in Oughterard and how you know they were “of African descent”; and also, what does being “of African descent” have to do with anything?

@Do the Bort man:
Ultra Right Wingers?
Where’s your facts and how could you know intimately their political leanings?
It seems like you’re making this land the ultra leftie lib wingers agenda that are making more of a political football out of this issue than those that you accuse.

@Jessie Ginger: Do you agree with Direct Provision Centres? Sounds like a conflict of interest here.

@Shane Freeney: we are not talking of refugees being taken from Syrian camps – if we were, the government would be quick to tell us.
While conditions in much of the world are indeed grim, it is beyond the capacity of European countries to offer alternative homes when we can’t even provide for our own working population.

@Anorack Jack: Of course i don’t and i’m not stupid enough to conflate the issues. the protest was not about DP – it was about ‘DP in Oughterard’.

Ye all quickly changed the rhetoric when you realised the backlash against the racist comments… none of you care a single iota about where those human beings will live now that they wont be living in Oughterard.

@Jessie Ginger: You’re Generalising and making sweeping judgements about people you know nothing about, that ironically in itself is a prejudice, the kind of bad principle you must disagree with yet demonstrate, it’s quite a double standard don’t you think?

@Martin M:
Exactly. Well done, their town, their choice.

@Martin M: What power? They will symply be placed somewhere else, in much better conditions, at people’s expense. For example lot of them currently live in Clayton Hotel close to Dublin airport and none of them would prefer to change it for Oughterard.

@Shane Freeney: rubbish, there is always one

@Shane Freeney: This is pure and simple a failed hotel operation trying to fill it’s rooms, regardless of who the occupants were, where they came from or under what conditions they had to endure.
Hotels are not suitable accomodation on long term for anyone.

@Shane Freeney: On all even the kids who stood with their parents . Maybe shame on you and your little FG rant.

@Shane Freeney: Ask any one in north dublin or Clondalkin , plenty of war here .

@Martin M: Really you bloody black hearted Racist

@Shane Freeney: do your research then judges

@Gazza Lazza: 3673 applications in 2018. 2090 rejected.

@Shane Freeney: thankfully clowns like you are outweighed by us. Stay living in your city. The country is ruined from idiots like you. Get a job ya do gooder

@Martin M: Now there’s an idea shift some of the homeless to Oughterard – Will they be all right lads!

@Martin M: Ah Martin Is that because they are black – Shame on you!

@Galwaygogo: they’re asylum seekers not citizens you plank, they’re not due housing. This is a completely different issue to the housing crisis.

@Martin M: your grammer is shocking ,and your so called facts are out of the hole on your backside

@Shane Freeney: What war ? , no one know were there from as they never arrived. They could be from Albania , South Africa , Gambia . Your Hysterics is pretty embarrassing for an adult Have you ever served in a war zone ? . I have .

@Martin M: Indeed, the amount of spinning going on from the government is shameful. Desperately trying to make those people out to be unreasonable racists. What they’re leaving out is that these hotels are mostly owned by people who have family or friends in the dail, and that they stand to make millions off letting a provision centre in.

@Anorack Jack: I have zero issue with calling racists disgusting… i’m fine with that and don’t have to explain myself to you or anyone else like you.

@Jessie Ginger: Your own self righteous views appear to be prejudiced, you are accusing someone or some people of something that they have not broken the law for, have any been charged with racism? let alone convicted, your own allegations are defamatory which it’s self is an offence, if you’re going to accuse and finger point from your high moral PC horse take a look at your own virtuous good self first.

@Anorack Jack: Very well said.

@Jessie Ginger: hahahahaha another clown we have here. Thank heavens looneys like yourself are greatly out numbered

@Martin M: Can I have those facts and statistics please….the reference to 1 person being Irish in every 6 is something that could be backed up by stats if true Id imagine. Thanks!

@Charlie B: YES, where I live we have had a large influx of immigrants, I am not anti-Muslim, Anti-anyone, I am saying we cannot afford to put more people on a sinking ship. WE have done more than our bit.
I can only conclude you are one of the people I mentioned in my previous post when you have to ask that question. There are 5 mosques within a small radius of where I live. I get on well with all immigrants but am not blind to the fact that I am often the only Irish person on a Luas carriage, that being in hospital 4 times this year, and with staff shortages, I got deadly infections. I note econimic migrants driving cars daily on my main road in burkas , [dangerous], There are now more immigrants where I live t han Irish people, and they are having baby after baby…. Call me a Bigot ~ nope I have good relations with same. It is the Govt. I blame, the boat is sinking and the fact u had to ask me that question shows you are naive, and live in an area wealthy enough not to have been affected .

@Rosie: how many has Ireland taken in? Please enlighten all with this figure . What is this weight that is causing us to sink? Your 1 in 6 comment I’m sure is true.. However maybe in a London suburb, maybe in a Sydney or new York neighbourhood but not in Ireland.. Or maybe you can also enlighten us as to that location you bluster about?

@Rosie: I only asked for stats and facts…..you assume I’m” one of those people”…..Kinda says more about you than anything…Thanks for your response… you are entitled to think and believe what you want. Im not naive….looking for facts and stats proves that…but thanks….you’ve mugged yourself right off here Rosie

@Rosie: that is the biggest load of horseshit I’ve ever read. Considering there’s only 10 mosques in Ireland and two are in Galway and the other two are in the northeast you must live in Dublin. Is 6 mosques too much for a city of almost 2 million?

“I get on well with all immigrants but am not blind to the fact that I am often the only Irish person on a Luas carriage.” – do you profile everyone you meet in day-to-day life? Why don’t you put the headphones in, Kindle on and mind your own business like everyone else?

“being in hospital 4 times this year, and with staff shortages, I got deadly infections” – you’re still alive. Be thankful. And staff shortages have nothing to do with infections like MRSA, it’s your generation that have serious antibiotic immunity.

“I note econimic [sic.] migrants driving cars daily on my main road in burkas , [dangerous]” How do you know they’re economic migrants. And how do you know they’re dangerous driving?

“There are now more immigrants where I live t han Irish people, and they are having baby after baby” – lies

“the boat is sinking and the fact u had to ask me that question shows you are naive, and live in an area wealthy enough not to have been affected” – I live in the poorest postcode in Ireland.

@Rosie: Rosie nothing against immigrants just not in Ireland

@Rosie: That’s hilarious. There’s no such town in Ireland. How did you come to that conclusion? Maybe you looked in a cafe in a town your were passing through and saw 6 customer and only 1 had white skin?

@Rosie: How many of the nurses and doctors that treated you weren’t Irish. Did you refuse treatment from the non Irish? You very much of “I’m not racist as long as they don’t live in my town, go to my school or get treated in my hospital”

@Martin M: Stead on there Martin. I always vote left and yet I am totally opposed to these direct provision centre scams for reasons of undermining the local labour market to integration and assimilation concerns. This is not a right versus left issue and I think it is divisive enough without throwing petrol on it.

@Charlie B: Tyrellstown near Blanchardstown . Balbriggan also. Many parts of Ashbourne

@stephen darling: Thanks Stephen,again I’m just looking for stats and facts to back up these claims, and none have been provided…..I live beside Blanch….its a mixed race community for sure but in no way, shape or form is there only 1 Irish person in every 6. I think any intelligent person can admit Rosie has had a ‘mare here, regardless of your view on this issue.

@Rosie: I’ve never read such crap in my life. You’re full of lies and you sound like an absolutely disgusting person. I’m much rather an immigrant than someone like you any day.

@Rosie: Well said Rosie, I’ve heard the far left loonies be selective about who should get preference when seeking asylum, I never heard them calling to take in the Yazidis from the Sinjar mountain during the genocide there in 2014 by Islamic psychopaths.
it’s always healthy looking Muslims they want ‘saving’ for the optics but the likes of the Coptic Christians in Egypt can be burnt out of their homes and go to hell for all they care.
it’s a political agenda with that lot not a humanitarian one, they’re all just mouthpiece virtue signallers.

@Anorack Jack: WELL SAID ROSIE!!!!I JUST FOUND A HISTORY BOOK TO VIRTUE SIGNAL WHILE ACCUSING OTHERS OF THE SAME THING!!!!!! Bore off Jack, go back to Mattress Mick in your taxi you melt.

@Rosie: Wow!

You’ve a great imagination, Rosie, and a great future as a fiction writer!

@stephen darling: Some statistics on Balbriggan. Population 2002 – 10,294. Population 2006 – 15,559. Population 2016 census – 24,611 of whom 28% are non nationals. The 28% does not include those children who were born to non nationals and as such are Irish citizens. Balbriggan is a multicultural town and has residents not alone from the EU but also countries all over the world. Granted many former residents of Mosney Camp have been relocated to Balbriggan and this could explain the high percentage of non nationals.

@Rosie: on it’s knees because of people voting repeatedly for the same… FG FF and the likes of Noel Grealish

I have lived near DP centres BTW and there were zero issues.And yes i’m still bleating about racism because that’s what this is.

@James Gannon: Pop on a night train in Balbrigian some time . Count them.

@James Gannon: take a wander around ikea any weekend you will find it difficult to hear an irish accent…

@Martin M: the word racist is so out of date. Reality bites

@Martin M: Martin how many coloured people walked with you in protest at Direct Provision in Oughterard, or were you too busy trying to keep them out!

@Martin M: and your a FAT racist!

@Eamonn O Connell: We are a nation of immigrants!

@James Gannon: your living in a little bubble obviously.

@Darren B: I know exactly what you mean. People living in ivory towers don’t have a clue

@Charlie B: ballyhaunis

@Peej: I agree with you about the hijacking of the cause by right wing elements, but this is a good result, the town is not a suitable location in any way. Shoving asylum seekers into rural towns with poor infrastructure is not helpful for anyone.

@Rocky Loveridge: it’s a fact that they were misled by the people that hijacked their townhall meeting. If they weren’t misled by the “far right boogeymen” as you say, then why was the entire campaign ran by a very well known far right racist. (not going to use names here because we all know they love an opportunity to scream defamation). Why were there people at the townhall meeting that don’t live in the town let alone have any connection to it only to spread falsities about the people that would be housed in the direct provision centre? Where did the money come from for the big professionally printed banners, t-shirts, placards, flyers? Not just the Irish times that highlights this but people that had actually attended the meeting where a certain TD was recorded giving a racist speech.

@Peej: No resources, no plan and no access to jobs. Social problem nuke bomb in the making.

Politicians made direct provision centres exempt from planning permission / public consultation in 2015 as anyone with half a brain knows a town like this in the west of ireland doesnt have resources to support their own let alone a large group of war victims. But there is big money in these centers so they just try to steamroll the locals and try and build it on the sly.

Well done to these people who stood up to corrupt Fianna Fail Fianna Gael trying to make a quick buck a the expense of not just the people of Galway but the war victims as well.

@Peej: ok pal. On what aspects were they misled? Did the dastardly far right manage to convince the poor native savage in Oughterard that they do actually have enough doctors, schools and local amenities.

Your hatred for these people are their legitimate concerns only strengthens their resolve. Well done to all the locals for remaining firm

@Rocky Loveridge: His hatred for anything and everything outside of “tree hugging activities” is pretty alarming in my opinion. Basic cop on and understanding the local issues with such facilities seems beyond some people.

@Peej: Your comment is ignorant and baseless.

@David Corrigan: Basic cop on and understanding is something the average liberal doesn’t possess these days. No understanding of basic facts and figures. But a great selection of words to describe people who have facts and figures – ‘racist’ ‘bigot’ xenofobe’ etc…the looney left thing is really getting old now.

@Peej: Virtue Signaller, take in a Family in need if you’re such a good citizen yourself.

@Adam O’hEidhin: Spot on.

@Adam O’hEidhin: They really do get on my nerves at this stage. I am all for fair play and helping people but I get sick to the back teeth of listening to brats who are “outraged” at everything. I suspect the most of them don’t even understand what they are outraged at!

@Peej: A whole town is far right , the town’s that accepted them must be far left . With your logic.

@Rocky Loveridge: locals ‘concerns’ were xenophobic… nothing the government can do about the nasty opinions ye hold

@Jessie Ginger: you’re some knob.

@Peej: Xenophobic, racist, bigot, far left, facist, all words straight from the PC Manual. Would it be possible for you to compose a sentence without using them? I doubt it.

@Peej: Oh well, if it’s in the Irish Times, it must be true!