'If you live here, you belong here': Hundreds gather in Fermoy for rally in support of refugees
Maggie Blackley, Pat Buckley TD, Kate O'Connell, Sean Sherlock TD and Fionn O'Connell at the Fermoy and Mallow against Racism solidarity rally to welcome asylum seekers to Fermoy, at the junction of Oliver Plunkett Hill and Mallow Road, Fermoy, Co. Cork. Picture: Jim Coughlan.
Up to 300 people gathered in Fermoy this afternoon for a rally in support of refugees and asylum seekers.
It followed a protest on Wednesday night by dozens of people outside an accommodation centre in the town where 66 recently arrived international protection (IP) applicants are staying.
At today's rally, people of all ages gathered with banners and chanted: "Refugees welcome, asylum seekers welcome".
One of the organisers, Kate O'Connell, said: "If you live here, you belong here. Fermoy is your home."
She said "hate mongers" do not bring solutions to communities.
The message at a solidarity rally in Fermoy, Co Cork today pic.twitter.com/8aN8mqzwBB
— Ann Murphy (@CraftyReporter) December 3, 2022
Ukraine native Marina Chevelova has been living in Clondulane, near Fermoy, for 20 years. She described Fermoy as a great town with a big heart and kind people. She described Wednesday’s protest as very stressful.
She explained: “This was hard to listen to this week because that is not Fermoy. When I came here, people were very kind to me.”
During the rally, a handful of people linked to Wednesday's protests attempted to engage with some of those attending the rally.
They departed to a chant of "cheerio, cheerio, cheerio".
A number of gardaí were on duty at the gathering.
Singer-songwriter Martin Leahy sang his song Everyone Should Have a Home which he has been performing regularly outside the Dail, regarding the housing crisis.
Among those involved in the gathering were Maggie and Sandy Blackley, who currently have four Ukrainians living in their home.
Maggie said: “I am here today because the sort of society I want to live in, and my family to continue to live in, is an open and welcoming and compassionate society. We have got the great delight and privilege of having four lovely Ukrainians living with us – two mothers who are best friends and their two little boys and they are lovely, lovely people, and the little boys are a delight to have in the house. We love them.” She continued: “When all of this over and they eventually go home – and they long to go home every day – we will be the ones who benefited from it.”
“A small number of people who are trying to bring a message all around the country who are disagreeing with what’s happening for reasons which are complex but are nowhere in my heart or in the heart of the people of Fermoy.”
Jamie Lawton was also among the gathering, carrying a banner which read that refugees are welcome. He travelled to the rally from Cork city.
He said he wanted to make people fleeing war feel welcome in Fermoy “especially given the certain opposition and push-back that might make feel them less welcome”.
He added that Ireland should be a welcoming and inclusive place.
Local resident Paul Kavanagh said that Fermoy has always been a welcoming town, pointing out that people fleeing the Troubles in Northern Ireland in the 1970s came to the town.
He added: “Michelle O'Neill, Northern Ireland's first Minister, was born in Fermoy. If we had rejected those refugees, then that piece of history would have been written differently. I have lifelong friends from that displacement, and I will have lifelong friends from this current displacement of innocent refugees.”
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