Two men remain in custody over stabbings at Killarney direct provision centre
Emergency Services at the scene at Hotel Killarney on New Year's Day. Picture: Padraig Healy
Two men remain in custody in Killarney, Co Kerry, and investigations are ongoing into a violent incident at Hotel Killarney, a large hotel turned direct provision centre, in which a number of people received knife injuries on Sunday evening.
Local representatives, as well as the town's long-established asylum seeker and refugee initiative, say the town cannot cope with the numbers of asylum seekers and refugees it is being asked to accommodate.
The town's main industry, tourism — which depends on its reputation — is at real risk, councillors believe.
Gardaí confirmed that four men were hospitalised after the incident. Two of those stabbed were taken to Cork University Hospital and two others to University Hospital Kerry in Tralee. A number of minor injuries were attended to at the scene.
Two males aged in their 30s were arrested and brought to Killarney Garda Station where they are detained under Section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act, 1984.
The public order incident broke out in the hotel shortly after 8.30pm on New Year’s Day.
At one point, five ambulances attended and one ambulance remained until 11pm on Sunday, an eyewitness said. Gardaí remained throughout the night.
Sections of hotel staff had not entered the building on Monday morning amid fear for their safety, persons familiar with the situation said.
Half of the 400 direct provision applicants in the hotel are males. Killarney Asylum Seeker Initiative (KASI) — the 22-year-old immigrant support centre that works with asylum seekers and refugees in the area — had expressed serious concern about the concentration of so many in one hotel.
It said the hotel was turned into a direct provision centre without any of the normal consultation with KASI or local representatives.
The organisation had already been looking after 400 asylum seekers in Killarney in three long established centres prior to October: Linden House in New Road Killarney, and Atlas House and Park Lodge, both in Park Road.
The sudden arrival of 400 more all different nationalities "under one roof " had placed a huge burden on their services. The KASI drop-in advice centre is also dealing with 3,000 Ukrainian refugees who have arrived in the town since last March.
Some 16 different nationalities are concentrated in Hotel Killarney, which is based in the Park Road, and around half of the residents are single males alongside families, which KASI believes is not an ideal model.
At the same time, up to 100 mostly men classified as Ukrainian refugees are in a hostel at the rear of the hotel and this group are in receipt of better financial remuneration, which is adding to feelings of tension and isolation.
“We don’t have the services — health, education, or other services to deal with such numbers. It is putting enormous strain on the town,” a KASI spokeswoman said.
Much of the problem in Hotel Killarney rested with how long it was taking to process applications, KASI believes.
The hotel was at the centre of controversy in October after plans by authorities to remove Ukrainian women and children who had arrived in Killarney in March from the hotel and transfer them to Co Mayo to make room for male direct provision applicants.
However, after local protests and action by KASI and Kerry County Council alternative hotel accommodation was sourced for the Ukrainian refugees and their children in town centre hotels.
Other locals familiar with the situation say trouble has been brewing and there have been incidents in the town centre, as well as in the Park Road area.
A clash between a small number of males including residents from Hotel Killarney and another refugee/asylum seeker premises before Christmas in the New Street/Beech Road because of political differences led to gardaí being called to intervene, it is also understood.
Councillor Niall O’Callaghan, a town centre hotelier and member of Kerry County Council, said there was huge concern in Killarney for the whole tourism industry and the town’s reputation.
“It is time for our Government TDs, particularly Brendan Griffin and Norma Foley, to step up to the mark on this and intervene with the Minister for Justice Simon Harris on behalf of Killarney," Mr O'Callaghan said.
"We in Killarney have spent hard years building our reputation as a leading tourist destination and we are watching it being dismantled.”
Local councillor Donal Grady has called for those involved in committing the violent incident in the hotel to be deported.
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