Sarah Clancy: Clare has welcomed thousands, but what happened this week is inexcusable

The Government, and most of the Opposition, have acted as if there is a justification for a community being consulted on who lives in it. We can’t appease these types of sentiments.

Locals in Inch, Co Clare, are protesting the arrival of refugees by blocking the roads to the Magowna House Hotel. Picture: Liam Burke/Press 22

This week, a community from the townland of Inch, a reasonably well off looking place five miles or so from Ennis, have taken it upon themselves to blockade a road and the entrances to a privately-owned premises which the State has contracted as emergency accommodation for people who have come to Ireland seeking protection. 

The locals do not want the premises to operate as an emergency centre. Or, as one woman shouted in my car window: "We don’t want them here!".