POSTS SHARED ON social media in recent days falsely claim that a community centre in Dublin has closed to accommodate single male refugees from Somalia.

Posts on Facebook and the messaging app Telegram have suggested that Aughrim Street Sports Centre, a facility in Stoneybatter in Dublin 7, has been shut to the public so that “150 Somalians” can be housed there.

The centre was the subject of local protests on 22 and 23 February, where demonstrators are said to have demanded that “no male asylum seekers” be housed at the facility.

However, the people being housed in the sports centre are from Ukraine and the accommodation is intended for a mix of people as it becomes available.

Rumours about the sports centre began circulating earlier this week, when a screenshot of a WhatsApp message in a local sports group was shared on social media, which stated that the sports hall would close unexpectedly for two weeks.

Users also shared an accompanying tweet from Smithfield Boxing Club, which trains in the centre, asking for groups to meet at the centre’s gates before training and explaining that boxers would “enter and leave the building as a group”.

An accompanying message on Telegram said that there were “unconfirmed” reports that 150 “male asylum seekers” would be accommodated in the hall. A Facebook post about the centre also claimed the same day that “150 Somalians moved in today”.

However, this is untrue.

The centre is expected to house Ukrainian families as part of the Government’s response to the war.

“We can confirm that the Department has contracted the Aughrim Street Sports Hall temporarily as part of the Ukraine response,” a spokesperson for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth told The Journal.

“Aughrim Sports Hall will be used for Ukrainian people for the period that it is open.”

The spokesperson also explained that Government allocates accommodation to Ukrainians when and where it becomes available, and said it was not possible to say the mix of gender and age that would be housed in the facility.

It should also be noted that it is not the first time the centre has been used to accommodate Ukrainian refugees.

The Irish Times reported last October that 12 to 15 men stayed in the centre at a time when the Citywest facility was closed to new arrivals (as it is currently).

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