LOCALS IN DUNDRUM, Co Tipperary have been encouraged to carry out dubious “citizen’s arrests” on migrant people who are due to be accommodated in a local hotel and the bus drivers who transport them to their accommodation.
Residents were falsely told at a public meeting that the citizen’s arrests would “turn the tables” on gardaí at the scene, rendering them powerless to stop locals from carrying out the arrests because they would be “assisting somebody that may have committed a crime”.
The ability to apprehend people by private citizens is technically on the statute books under the Criminal Law Act but is very rarely used. It is fraught with legal danger as a reasonable belief is needed that the person being apprehended has committed a crime.
In Dundrum, it was claimed that a person who didn’t have identification on their person while in Ireland would lead to “reasonable suspicion” that a crime had been committed.
At a meeting held in the locality last week, up to 40 residents of the west Tipperary village met to discuss tactics to halt the housing of asylum seekers at the Dundrum House Hotel in the coming weeks.
The meeting followed a failed attempt at the High Court to block the housing of international protection applicants in place of Ukrainian people.
The Journal heard protesters at the meeting outline their efforts to pressure the hotel at the centre of the dispute to row back on its decision to provide accommodation to the international protection applicants.
Some GAA members are also pressuring their clubs to boycott the hotel’s golf course over recent months.
A protest has been maintained outside the hotel since May. While the suggestion to carry out citizen’s arrests was welcomed by some, it was rejected as something that “simply wouldn’t work” by local councillors who attended the meeting.
However, Fianna Fáil councillor Roger Kennedy told The Journal that he believed the Dundrum community is “entrenched” in its views and “won’t provide the same goodwill it showed Ukrainians to Ipas applicants” who are due to be sheltered in the area.
He added that he believes the protest may, similar to scenes seen in Coolock, Newtownmountkennedy and Roscrea, turn “violent” over the coming weeks.
The hotel had initially provided up to 274 beds to house Ukrainians following Russia’s invasion of their homeland two years ag. It is now being repurposed to house asylum seekers in the coming weeks.
The hotel, which sits on a 220-acre site that includes a golf resort, is owned by Steelworks Investment Ltd. The company is run by American businessman and former Morgan Stanley banker Jeffrey Leo.
Last month, a group made up of mainly Dundrum residents lodged 230 affidavits with the High Court complaining about the housing of asylum seekers at the hotel. However it was roundly rejected by Mr Justice David Holland who said the application by residents was claiming that international protection applicants were “more likely to be burglars than those staying as guests at the hotel or Ukrainian refugees”.
Refusing the injunction, the judge said he would “lend no weight to that assertion” by some affidavits.
Members of the protest have told The Journal they want to see the building returned to commercial use rather seeing its beds housing asylum seekers.
The hotel had not traded in recent years prior to the war in Ukraine. The golf course on the premises has remained open for business.
One speaker at the public meeting, Patrick McGreal, a Westmeath man who represented the community in the failed injunction, encouraged residents to carry out citizen’s arrests themselves on asylum seekers arriving to be housed in Dundrum.
McGreal promotes himself as an anti-corruption campaigner who has set up a GoFundMe page to “legally pursue state employees and their legal representatives for violating our constitutional rights”.
At last week’s meeting, he told the gathered crowd that citizen’s arrests could happen in a situation where gardaí may try to escort asylum seekers through a blockade at the hotel gates.
The community hall heard this could be based on the “reasonable belief that the people on the bus have committed a crime”, citing media reports about asylum seekers not carrying identification.
“There’s a reasonable assumption that a lot of asylum seekers that come into Ireland get rid of their ID cards. That’s been broadcast on the radio, it’s been broadcast through newspapers, it’s been broadcast by TVs,” McGreal said.
The meeting was attended by local protest organisers and elected councillors.
There were no representatives present to speak on behalf of asylum seekers.
One organiser of the local protest welcomed the proposal, saying it could be worth it as a “peaceful delay tactic” to halt the housing of international protection applicants.
McGreal falsely added that any bus driver would also be breaking the law by “contravening the moving of people into the State” through his work. He said local residents were within their “rights to stop the bus” transporting asylum seekers, but added this would not mean “forcibly” getting onto the bus and that they are “not going to hurt anyone” on the vehicle.
“The guards aren’t going to let that happen,” McGreal said.
McGreal’s claims drew derision from one local councillor. Liam Browne, an independent who was elected for the first time in the June local elections, said McGreal and others needed to be “careful” with their language.
“I’m going to have to stop you there,” Browne said, “A bus driver has not brought people into the state, they’re moving people around the state.”
Browne, who said he was against the housing of asylum seekers in Dundrum House Hotel, warned that locals can’t hold such suspicions about new arrivals in Dundrum not possessing identity documents.
“I want to use legislation that will work…if I can pick that out of you in five seconds then it won’t last in court,” Browne continued. “If we try to make a citizen’s arrest at the gates of Dundrum it will be thrown out [of court].”
One local organiser interjected and questioned whether they can apply more pressure on bus drivers, imploring local councillors to join in. “Can we target them?,” the man said, asking councillors if they can “put pressure on to target” bus drivers.
Speaking to The Journal, councillor Roger Kennedy said “no decision” was made on the suggestion but cast doubt on whether it was feasible. “I don’t think anybody knows who transports [asylum seekers], the department just hires whoever is available on it.”
Asked if it was unfair to target bus companies, he said: “I don’t know. I don’t know the bus companies involved.”
He said it was “totally wrong” to put an Ipas centre in Dundrum given its proximity to the golf course. Kennedy added that while it may have been a success housing Ukrainians, he believes the proposal to house asylum seekers was “unworkable”.
McGreal told The Journal last night that he viewed the “main takeaway” from the meeting was that the “community is determined to seek justice through the legal system and ensure that their constitutional rights are respected”.
He said he disagreed with the stance by government ministers that communities cannot “have a veto over who moves” into their area.
In recent days McGreal has been posting what he claims is a legal document that requires “residents and non-residents” of Dundrum to be of “good behaviour” while in the area.
Despite the High Court closing the doors of justice on the community of Dundrum, their unwavering dedication and determination have paved their own path to justice. Protecting their community from the unlawful placement of an IPAS Centre is a testament to their strength and… pic.twitter.com/h7TkV77CV5
— Patrick McGreal (@PSIA1851) August 5, 2024
Liam Brown, the recently elected independent councillor, did not respond in time for publication.
At last week’s public meeting, he said he believed it was likely Dundrum would end up housing asylum seekers, but called it a “parasitic thing the government are doing” by housing asylum seekers in different communities.
He added that Dundrum could “probably” cater to the new arrivals as could other communities, further claiming the government was “wearing us down over 8 or 9 weeks…doing it one community at a time”.
He added that he does not want to hold any marches on the issue, as seen in other communities including Newtownmountkennedy in Co Wicklow. “I don’t want to march where the lads with the fascist flags [turn up]. And the other lads will come down with the anti-fascist flags.”
Roger Kennedy, the local Fianna Fáil councillor, said there is a view locally that the hotel wants “heads on beds” and that was why it was set to end its contract to house Ukrainians.
“Dundrum showed a lot of goodwill for Ukrainians. Amenities were put to use, any tasks that were asked of them were done.
“I think they’re now being punished for that and I don’t think the same goodwill will be shown to the new people coming in,” Kennedy said.
He pointed to local efforts underway to apply pressure to the hotel owners. Local businesses are “withholding” their commercial rates from the council by redirecting the money to a shared bank account before the protest is resolved, Kennedy explained.
There are also attempts to keep golf club members away from the course. Local GAA club members have “told their clubs they won’t play at the club for weekly golf classics and they won’t pass the picket at the hotel gates”, Kennedy said.
“Some are in favour [of housing asylum seekers] but a lot of others are not,” he said.
Dundrum House Hotel and Tipperary GAA were contacted and did not respond in time for publication. The Department of Integration was also contacted for comment.
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