The graffiti outside of the old Garda Station building on Roche’s Road. The building has been rebranded ‘Unity Square’ and is due to house Ukrainian refugees.
© Wexford People
While Ukrainian refugees were expected to have moved into the old Garda Station on Roche’s Road by now, those due to take up residency in the building re-christened ‘Unity Square’ will be greeted with an unwelcoming message.
An artist with an agenda took the opportunity to scrawl “Eire is Full” in large blue letters on the wall outside the building, in which work still seems to be ongoing.
It was anticipated that up to 57 people were to move into the building in February, however, it appears that works may have been halted by Wexford County Council’s enforcement section over concerns around work being carried out to the exterior of the protected structure.
Regardless, the message scrawled on the wall was condemned by local representatives.
While stating that he was “reluctant to give this type of thing oxygen”, Independent councillor Leonard Kelly said: “This amounts to mindless vandalism. There’s a time and a place for making political statements, but scrawling this type of thing on a wall where people are looking for sanctuary is not the way to go”.
Labour’s Cllr George Lawlor agreed that it was concerning.
“We really have to stop this demonization of people,” he said. “We had a situation in Dublin where a Croatian tourist was beaten to death because he wasn’t speaking English. We had another situation in Cork where a Brazilian worker was beaten with baseball bats.
“All of this is being driven by subtle and not-so-subtle commentary from the far-right and from elected representatives that should really know better.
“Of course we need a conversation on immigration and we need to act in a more efficient manner when it comes to processing people, but we should be very careful in our language in relation to people that are arriving here seeking refuge. The Irish did it all over the world for hundreds of years.”
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