herefor the fun of it’

Shannon based Malcolm Moran who lived in England as an Irish immigrant for over two decades said asylum seekers should be given “a fair chance” in the Clare town.

At the age of 17, Malcolm Moran emigrated to England, returning to Ireland in his early forties after making a good living in the building trade.

“When I went to England on the doors of houses were ‘no blacks, no dogs, no Irish’, it greatly concerns me because all they seem to be talking about is anti-racism. I’m living in Shannon, I’m concerned about the services in Shannon, if you have a child and need access to the health centre they don’t provide it anymore you have to go to Ennis. If you are a working parent, you have to take a day off work unpaid and get a bus if you haven’t access to a car to get to Ennis”.

An absence of information from the Government has not helped this particular matter, Malcolm acknowledged.

“These are just asylum seekers, we have Irish people who have gone all over the world to work, we’ve Irish working in every country in the world, we have a good reputation all over the world, people are entitled to be given a fair chance, they are not coming here for the fun of it, they are not coming here because they are economic migrants, like the rest of us they would prefer to be in their own country if they could make a living there or if there wasn’t a war there or if there wasn’t a drought there or if they weren’t treated like shit there”.

A STATE owned building in the Shannon Industrial Estate will be used for the purposes of emergency accommodation but the exact quantity of refugees living there and the length of their stay in the town has not been finalised, writes Páraic McMahon

Responding to queries from The Clare Echo, a spokesperson for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth said engagement was ongoing with the Office of Public Works (OPW) to use a state owned property in the Shannon Free Zone (Industrial Estate).

Officials in the Department anticipate that “the property will come online later in the year”. Specifics on when in 2023 this will occur were not forthcoming When information on the amount of asy- lum seekers that will be living in the building and how long it will be used for this purpose was sought, the spokesperson replied, “It is not possible to provide final details prior to designs being decided and a facilities provider to operate the facility in place”.

“For any such property coming into use, inspections are carried out to ensure fire safety, general health & safety, sanitary facilities, food service, security and the general condition of building is up to the standard required. No person can be placed in the accommodation until all inspections are carried out satisfactorily.

“As persons with status get their own accommodation it frees up space as more people come into Ireland and into the system,” the spokesperson added.

Newborns have blurry vision for the first four months that develops over time, but they do love to focus on your face (especially your eyes) as you hold them.

It takes about four months for a baby to fully see colors and distant objects