Fear and sympathy: small Irish town divided over asylum camp

A year after Dublin’s anti-immigration riots, a tent camp for asylum seekers faces hostility while some locals try to support the new arrivals

In the small town of Newtown Mount Kennedy, a holding centre for people who have just arrived in Ireland seeking asylum lies in the wooded grounds of Trudder House, a former convent. The building itself is disused and off-limits. Instead, men arriving from countries such as Somalia, Sudan and Nigeria are housed in 12-16 makeshift tents, separated from the town by a 10ft-tall fence daubed with graffiti reading “Newtown says no”.

Craig Bishop, a retired GP who is part of Newtown Together, a group of volunteers trying to support the camp’s residents, said the barricade created an immediate sense of “them and us”. “They come all this way for protection only to be behind a 10ft fence to be protected from who? From the locals,” he said.