'Irishness is changing Tent camp for asylum seekers divides small town

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.

- Lisa O'Carroll

The building is disused and off limits. Instead, men arriving from countries such as Somalia, Sudan and Nigeria are put in 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 trying to support those in the camp, said: "They come all this way for protection only to be behind a 10ft fence to be protected from who? From the locals?," When word got out in March that the site in NTMK, as the town is known for short, would be used as a centre for some of the 16,000 applicants for international protection who have arrived in Ireland this year, tensions mounted, with 24-hour protests taking place outside the property. In April, attempts by the police to disperse the crowds resulted in violent clashes, and five people were charged. Local people said that the demonstrations had been peaceful and turned nasty by outside antagonists fuelled by an anti-immigration narrative.