1. Half my family are from Achill Island. The people of Achill are getting pilloried by the media so let me set some things out as I understand them. First, the story that it’s a few women that were to be accommodated only developed after news broke.
2. The government rammed this Achill the wrong way, it could not have worked, there was no engagement, no dialogue with the local community. Fait accompli was the method of choice & that was never going to work.
Want local communities to welcome asylum seekers? You won’t find warmer people in Ireland than you’ll find in Achill Island. How about gov’t engaging them first? Tell the stories of those to be sheltered, introduce them, explain, establish empathy. Just don’t BS them.
The story that did make the rounds is that it was to be all single men. Who is responsible for this? I’ll tell you who, the people that thought that the ‘red necks’ down in Achill would take anything without explanation. Achill people will not be walked on.
Reminds me of my great g. grandfather Paddy McHugh of Achill & Ballycroy. His grave is a raised table stone. Inscribed "Here lies Paddy McHugh, he didn't let anyone walk on him when he was alive, and he didn't want anyone walking on him when he was dead.” Achill in a nut shell.
So the media currently pillorying the people of Achill might want to back off, take a breath & start looking at a few long strings around this problem. Why is there no prior community engagement? Where are the folks in need of accommodation coming from? What are their stories?
Treat communities and rural Irish towns and villages in the same way people in leafy South Dublin expect to be treated. That’ll be a reasonable starting place.
And for goodness sake, do the people that thought they could do this by sleight-of-hand know anything about Achill? Do they know where the word ‘Boycott’ originated from? What did they expect?
As for anyone lecturing the people of Achill about emigration, save your breath. We’ve been doing it since before the word was invented.
