Fermoy's Abbeyville House will now provide temporary shelter for families and children
Abbeyville House, Fermoy, Co Cork.
A former B&B in north Cork, previously intended to house adult male international protection applicants, will now provide temporary accommodation for families and children instead, the Department of Integration has announced.
In a statement issued at lunchtime on Wednesday, the Department of Integration’s community engagement unit said Abbeyville House in Fermoy would not now be providing temporary accommodation for adult males, but instead would house families.
“It is intended that 56 people in need of shelter will be accommodated at the premises shortly,” the statement said.
The statement added that emergency centres such as this one planned for Fermoy have been opened in all parts of the country, with almost 200 accommodation locations utilised since January 2022 across 26 counties.
“These options must be considered to prevent homelessness for people arriving seeking international protection,” the statement said.
“The situation in relation to accommodation for International Protection applicants remains extremely challenging, and the department remains unable to offer accommodation to many newly arrived IP applicants at present.”
Abbeyville House, which is located at Abercromby Place, beside Brian Boru Square on the northside of Fermoy’s River Blackwater, closed as a bed and breakfast several years ago.
Since the latter half of last year, the listed building, which dates back to the 1850s, has undergone renovation and adaptation works in preparation for the building’s planned use as an accommodation centre for people seeking international protection.
A small group of protesters objecting to the building’s planned use as an accommodation centre has maintained a presence outside of Abbeyville House since late last year, erecting a tent on the road outside its main gates.
In November of last year, there was an incident at Abbeyville House, described by garda sources as an attempted arson attack.
In a statement to at the time, the Garda Press Office said: “Gardaí are investigating a criminal damage incident at a premises in Fermoy, Co Cork which occurred on 22 November, 2023 at approximately 9pm”.
No damage to the building was reported. A garda source said on Wednesday that an investigation is ongoing.
At the end of November 2022, some 80 people picketed a newly opened accommodation centre on the south side of Fermoy, demanding the immediate deportation of 63 international protection applicants, 25 of them children, who had just arrived at St Joseph’s, the former Presentation convent in the town.
Three days after that initial anti-immigrant protest in Fermoy, around 300 local people attended a demonstration on the other side of town, across the river, outside the Church of Ireland, holding aloft banners reading 'Refugees are Welcome'.
There are currently a number of families, totaling approximately 130 people, living in the St Joseph’s centre.
A spokesperson for the pro-refugee group Fermoy and Mallow Against Division told the group was appealing to protesters that they show “decency and sensitivity” toward families and children arriving in Fermoy.
“With children due to arrive in our town, we would appeal that we not see a repetition of the horrific scenes seen in Roscrea recently, where children arriving at an accommodation centre had to run the gauntlet of protesters,” the spokesperson said.
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