Historic hotel now asylum unit

THE hotel where Eamon de Valera frequently stayed when electioneering in Limerick, Clare and Tipperary, yesterday reopened as an accommodation centre for 104 asylum seekers.

Hanratty’s Hotel has undergone a €4 million refurbishment. The Limerick city centre property is owned by businessman JP Ryan who also had owned Clyde House where the asylum seekers had been staying up to yesterday. The Government bought and refurbished Clyde House last January for €12.6m and it is to be used as a homeless centre where people with drink problems can stay. Local residents, however, had opposed the move.

Mr Ryan was given planning permission last September to carry out a €2m redevelopment of Clyde House. He said the term “wet house” to describe the facility was emotive, unfair and amounted to incitement.