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1969 on: refugee camps in the 26 Counties

  • 12-11-2013 1:11am
    #1
    Rebelheart
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,077 ✭✭✭


    I was driving past Gormanston army base in Meath yesterday evening and I remembered vividly an extract from Reeling in the Years 1972 (which doesn't appear to be in YouTube) where a Belfast kid spoke about the differences between living in the refugee camp in Gormanston and living in Belfast.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpwfUfPEv2E
    (1969, from 23:00)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1PzJ3IIVNU
    (1971, from 17:06)


    According to the Department of Defence about Gormanston: "In 1969 over 600 refugees escaping from the violence in Belfast were accommodated at this location and this continued on a regular basis until the end of 1971 by which stage some 12,000 persons had been assisted at the camp."


    Anyway, some questions:

    1) How many of these refugee camps were there in the republic?
    2) When did they open? How many people stayed in them?
    3) For how long did they usually stay?
    4) What sort of alternative accommodation were they given afterwards?
    5) When did they close?


Comments

  • #2
    Zebra3
    Registered Users Posts: 13,846 ✭✭✭✭Zebra3


    Rebelheart wrote: »
    4) What sort of alternative accommodation were they given afterwards?

    Read on one of the forums on here, that a good number were moved into the flats in Ballymun.


  • #3
    Santa Cruz
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,126 ✭✭✭Santa Cruz


    I think that Kilworth Camp and the Garda College at Templemore were used as refugee centres.


  • #4
    donaghs
    Registered Users Posts: 2,689 ✭✭✭donaghs


    It seems that some spent some time in the RDS in Ballsbridge also
    http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19720802&id=rgcrAAAAIBAJ&sjid=dJgFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2729,1081824


  • #5
    ciarriaithuaidh
    Registered Users Posts: 1,265 ✭✭✭ciarriaithuaidh


    Quite a few of these families ended up being settled in Shannon town in Clare. Still a lot of Northern names around there to this day.


  • #6
    grenache
    Registered Users Posts: 6,477 ✭✭✭grenache


    ciarriaithuaidh wrote: »
    Quite a few of these families ended up being settled in Shannon town in Clare. Still a lot of Northern names around there to this day.
    Yep. As Shannon was a relatively new town, which the government wanted to grow, it seemed an obvious place to relocate them.

    From having worked at a few functions in Shannon Golf Club, I came across a disproportionately high number of members in their 50s/60s with northern accents. I'd love to know how many people fleeing the North actually settled in the town? It's surely a couple of thousand at least.


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  • #7
    ciarriaithuaidh
    Registered Users Posts: 1,265 ✭✭✭ciarriaithuaidh


    grenache wrote: »
    Yep. As Shannon was a relatively new town, which the government wanted to grow, it seemed an obvious place to relocate them.

    From having worked at a few functions in Shannon Golf Club, I came across a disproportionately high number of members in their 50s/60s with northern accents. I'd love to know how many people fleeing the North actually settled in the town? It's surely a couple of thousand at least.

    Couldn't put a number on it, but definitely a few hundred Grenache...lots of names like McArdle etc in Shannon to this day.


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