Fermoy for all - Locals come together to welcome refugees and condemn anti-migrant protests

“After that rally against people coming to Fermoy, when the far right showed up here, we really wanted to speak out and say ‘these people don’t speak for us, most of them are not from here, and they don’t speak for the vast majority of our town’,” Chris O’Connell of the volunteer group Fermoy For All tells The Echo.

“We decided that the best way to help new people into the community was to help them get involved in all sorts of things like the Tidy Towns, and all the other ways people can join in the community.” 

Neasa O’Riordan is a volunteer with the group and she says that once a week two members will text the St Joseph’s residents on their WhatsApp group and arrange to call around.

“They’ll meet up with us to let us know any news they have, and often it’s just a chit-chat,” she says.

“Their needs have changed considerably as things have moved along. 

"Originally it was school places, there were no school places available, for boys in particular, in Fermoy, and there was an onus on the State to help them with that, but yet we had to help them through the paperwork, but there’s quite a few teachers, and retired teachers, in our group, and they were brilliant.”

Ms O’Riordan says that once children were in school, and school buses had been organised for them, the focus of Fermoy For All shifted to integration, initially focusing on getting children and later adults involved in local sports clubs, and then local volunteer groups in the community.

“One thing which came out of all of this was the English language classes, which go all over the country, they’re called Fáilte Isteach, and they were founded by a group that was started in Co Meath almost 20 years ago, and they trained us, and those classes are available to people from all over the community, not just people in St Joseph’s, but to everyone in the area,” she says.

Jenny O’Connor says she decided to become involved with Fermoy For All because she wanted to get involved and wanted to help the new arrivals to integrate into the community.

“The people in St Joseph’s are just lovely, they’re so lovely, and it’s just nice to be in a position to welcome them to Fermoy,” she says.

“I think people are starting to realise what has happened in Fermoy, and I think people are realising that what we did as a community is effective, and they want to use it as a template for other communities.

“Migration is only going to get stronger, I feel, we’re going to see a lot more people coming into our country and we need to do it right so that it benefits everyone. And we did do it right in Fermoy, the majority of the people in St Joseph’s are happy to be in the town,” she says.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of pain at having had to flee their country, and having to settle into a completely new country, with a completely new culture, but the majority of the people we meet, they seem to be getting on with it and doing their best to integrate, doing courses, getting involved in different groups like the Sanctuary Runners, the International Choir, the Tidy Towns, the GAA, soccer and everything else.

“We benefit from it too, it lifts us to see how far people have come since they came here, if we can put out the hand of friendship, then we benefit from that too.”