Roscrea's asylum seekers 'don't want handouts, they want to work and integrate'
The Sean Ross Abbey in Roscrea, Tipperary, is now home to 120 asylum seekers.
It is the former mother and baby home in Roscrea whose cold and cruel past was made infamous by the Oscar-nominated film .
Now the large Georgian building in Sean Ross Abbey is having a different kind of second act as it has become home to 120 asylum seekers.
The Tipperary institution, where thousands of babies were born to unmarried mothers, is based just outside a town where feelings have run high about immigration.
Six weeks ago, just 2km away, ugly scenes broke out at Racket Hall Hotel when it was suddenly closed to the public to make room for asylum seekers.
The returned to Roscrea to see how the locals and asylum seekers were getting along since then.
Up to 75 of the 160 asylum seekers have since moved into the hotel and the protest is in its sixth week.
When it proved difficult to contact asylum seekers there, we travelled to the nearby Sean Ross Abbey to speak to some of the occupants.
To our surprise, the house manager of the centre and Roscrea resident Christine Murphy invited us in.
For the next two hours, we met staff, as well as some of the asylum seekers where we discovered a different side to the story than the one played out on social media.
“In our centre, 85% of our residents are employed in Roscrea and they are aged between 19 and 68 years,” said Christine, who has worked in Sean Ross Abbey, also known as Corville House, since 2022 along with her daughters.
“I absolutely love the job,” she said. “We are not open to the public, but we are glad someone has asked us about the work we do.
Roscrea currently has three large centres for asylum seekers, Racket Hall, the Sacred Heart Convent, and Sean Ross Abbey.
Several smaller properties in the town also house people seeking international protection.
The Racket Hall closure last month caused upset for some in Roscrea, which is home to around 6,000 people.
Some feared their tourism industry would be affected, while the town’s services are already overstretched.
On January 11, at around midday, just as the initial group of 17 women and children took up refuge in the hotel, protesters clashed with gardaĂ.
The ugly scenes made international headlines and the world’s media descended on the small town in the aftermath.
Unlike the new residents in Racket Hall, the men living in Sean Ross have been in Ireland for more than six months and are entitled to a work permit.
Before they were earning, they lived on €38.80 per week while in accommodation.
The large detached two-storey country house in Sean Ross was built in 1770 and is situated on around 63 acres of land.
Security sits inside the gated entrance and there is a long drive to the front door of the main building — a two-storey Georgian house with a red door over a large basement.
There is a regular stream of cars driving in and out of the long avenue.
The cars are owned by some of the asylum seekers.
“A lot of them are driving,” said Christine. “They are also using electric scooters or bicycles as well as cars and they maintain them all themselves.
"In Roscrea, you have to have transport. We don’t have a good bus service and there is no train service.
“Birr is a 15 to 20 minutes drive. There is no bus there so that is stopping some of the men from going further in that direction to get jobs. To Thurles, we have a local link, but it is not reliable.”Â
The asylum seekers come from all over the world, including Bangladesh, Russia, and Mongolia as well as some African countries.
“Some of these men are well educated and highly skilled and are of huge benefit to the local economy," said Christine.
Once inside the building, our first port of call on our tour was the large beige basement kitchen with several cupboards and a cooking area.
Some of the men were making dinner.
Adjoining the kitchen is a long dark corridor leading to the upstairs.
To one side of the backdoor is a row of shoes.
“None of them wear shoes inside,” said Christine.
A Russian man who has a little English was introduced to me as a cardiovascular surgeon.
“He is now a member of the medical council,” said Christine. “All his certificates have to be verified and he has to do some retraining.
“He came here with no English, and he got classes with adult education services and a local volunteer who has worked tirelessly with him. He now has a B1 in English.”Â
Harry from Zimbabwe greeted us with a large smile.Â
“I’m working as a security guard,” he told me, adding that he likes living in Roscrea and says the locals are very kind to him.
To one side of the main reception in the house, at the foot of the large staircase is a games room as well as a TV room with sofas and armchairs. One man was watching TV and smiled and said hello.
His name was Adam, and he came to Ireland from Somalia. He said he is doing his level 6 healthcare course and looks forward to completing it.
All of the rooms downstairs are spacious with large, curtained windows from the ceiling to the floor.
We used the wide staircase in the front hall to go to the second floor where we visited the sleeping quarters.
The rooms were spacious and included a bed, a side cupboard, and a place to hang clothes.
“We don’t cram them into one room as you can see,” she said. “The most we would have are three men in one room and in that case, they are all friends.
“A lot of work had to be undertaken when we first took over, every single shower had to be pulled out."
There are showers and toilets on each floor and a 24-hour tea and coffee station away from the rooms. There is also wifi.
Some of the men are in college.
“We have a man studying criminology at the University of Limerick on a scholarship,” said Christine.
“Among the others, we have fully qualified accountants, a surgeon, plasterers, engineers, and mechanics.
“People don’t realise how important these men are to our society, they don’t want to live here and get handouts, as regularly suggested, they want to work and make a life for themselves. They have been running from terrible situations."
There are three main factories in Roscrea:Â Stapletons Baking Factory, Rosderra Meats, and Ashbourne Meats where many of the men are working.
“As soon as they got their papers to work, we got jobs for them.
“They will then have to find their own place and set up home soon, and the next set of asylum seekers will come.
"These lads are not being housed by the State when they leave here, and there is a housing crisis here, so it’s not that easy to find them accommodation."
Regular protests are taking place not just in Roscrea, but all over the country over single males moving into centres.
So far this year, 23 buildings earmarked for asylum seekers have been set on fire.
“The lads are afraid of course,” said Christine. “They know what is going on.
“The idea of unvetted males coming into the country and being a danger, that is not correct, they are all fingerprinted and whether they have papers or not with them when they arrive, they have to hand everything over to the officials in the International Protection Accommodation Services who process them.”
As we walked through the old halls of Sean Ross Abbey, Christine said she never thought the building could ever be used for this purpose.
It operated from around 1932 to 1970 under the Scared Heart of Jesus and Mary order.
Sean Ross Abbey was bought by a Limerick businessman Tony Donellan in 2018 and in 2022 he leased it to local businessman Paul Fogarty for the asylum seekers.
Every floor of the building has a kitchenette where the residents can cook up until 10pm.
“A lot of the lads are up at 6am and you’ll have disagreements of course, so we make sure we all respect each other and try and get along.”
As we move to the east wing, another resident who is just in from work is Francis from Ghana.
He introduced himself and said he is working in a recycling centre in Dublin and gets the bus up and down to the city every day for work.
Christine said she is always on call and keeps the men moving through the system.
“We are contracted to IPAS who make the referrals and decide who goes where,” she said.
“I organise their vaccines, if they are sick, I’ve to get a doctor. It is full-on."
She added she would love if the protesters saw how “valuable” the men are to the Irish workforce.
“The constant attacking of the single males is unfair,” she continued. “I work here and so do my daughters; nobody has ever disrespected us.
“They have their own culture and I always tell them to say please and thank you and that it goes a long way.
"But apart from that, we are very proud of our residents, and we are happy to invite anyone who wants to come and meet them, to call into us.
“My boss was devastated when Racket Hall closed, but he is also a businessman and the Government was appealing for empty buildings for this purpose.
“The issue is with the Government, not the asylum seekers. The housing crisis was here before any of them came along.
“I agree with the protesters that they need more resources; we need a cinema and more for children to do.
“For that to happen we need more investment in the town and the Government is now talking about building a community hotel.
“There is a nationwide shortage of GPs and dentists.
“But we all want a seat at the table to resolve issues, ask the lads to help or come and meet them and find common ground that can help us all move forward because these lads are an asset to the community.
“You will always have people who cause problems, that happens in any community but I’ve no issues with these lads.”
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