You can't miss it as you drive up the hill away from Rosslare port: a striking yellow and black building on the hilltop, the Devereux Hotel is an early invitation to break your journey.

"Liquor, Beers and Sustenance for the Weary Traveller," proclaims the sign over the restaurant entrance. A short distance farther on is the first of the welcome signs: "Ireland - Welcome to Wexford, the Sunny South East".

For weary traveller substitute asylum-seeker. The Devereux Hotel served its last drinks to customers last Sunday. And the welcome sign appears equally out of date.

Anger in Rosslare Harbour and the neighbouring village of Kilrane over the decision to turn the hotel into a reception centre for asylum-seekers is running at such a pitch it is necessary to break the concerns into several categories.

First there is annoyance, shared by those who would welcome asylum-seekers to the area, about the manner in which the Government purchased the hotel without any consultation with locals.

There is deep upset, again shared by all sides, at the loss of a local amenity. For many, the Devereux was their local pub; it was used by community groups and local soccer clubs as a meeting place. Young people went to its regular discos.

It's at this point that views diverge and the community splits into those who have no problem with asylum-seekers coming to the area and those who do. The latter camp appears to be in a large majority and has a breathtaking array of concerns: there is talk of AIDS, TB, damage to tourism, collapsing property prices and unspecified threats to schoolchildren.

According to one woman, who asked not to be named, "rumours are running wild" in the area.

"If a piece of land goes up for sale now, suddenly everybody has it that it's being bought for refugees. Every house in Kilmore Quay is being bought for them, apparently. A lot of people are fearful and some are taking advantage of this," she said.

The woman is one of those who, she claimed, are afraid to speak out, such is the extent of local animosity to the prospect of housing asylum-seekers.

Peter Whitehead, a B&B owner in Kilrane, says the blame lies partly with successive governments which did nothing to educate people about the refugee issue. Then suddenly a popular local hotel is closed. "I don't think we ever had a problem with racism here, but I think we have one now and it's because of the lack of information. People are scared," he said.

"Everybody's calling us racists but we're not," said another man who also asked not to be named.

"I've worked abroad with Indians, Chinese and people of all nationalities - no problem. But feelings are fairly strong. A lot of people in the area work away. Naturally we're concerned. If it was your wife and kids and you were away for two weeks at a time, how would you feel?"

Property prices, he had been told, had fallen by 20 per cent in the area since the Devereux was sold a week ago.

Getting those who are against accommodating refugees to explain exactly how their children will be threatened is difficult. At a public meeting in Rosslare Harbour on Wednesday night, reference was made to asylum-seekers "hanging around schools".

The woman who spoke of the rumour machine says there is no evidence to support this. "I don't know what schools they're talking about. Nobody said at the meeting: it was a case of `They're hanging around our schools', and everybody clapped. I collect my children every day at the local school and it doesn't happen here.

"My parents live near the Loreto school in Wexford and you never see them there, either. The one school that has been mentioned in Wexford is the Presentation Convent, which is across the road from where they [asylum-seekers] go to get their benefits. Of course, they're going to be seen there."

Harry Wilson, a retired businessman in Rosslare Harbour, says he's not worried if people call him a racist. "Not all refugees are coloured, so it's not a race thing."

He believes, however, that Wexford town is in a better position to cope with asylum-seekers, who were liable to "come in with AIDS or anything else". How would tourists react, he asked, to the sight of washing hanging out of a building as prominent as the former hotel? "They'll be out of here like a bat out of hell; they're not going to hang around."

He questioned why the Government had given them no advance information. "If there's nothing wrong why don't they come down here and talk to us? It's obvious that everything is not right. They have a problem and they think they're going to shove it down on us. They must think we're awful eejits."

Between them, Rosslare Harbour and Kilrane have a population of about 2,500, so an attendance of 400 was a sizeable turnout at Wednesday's meeting. Most spoke strongly against accommodating asylum-seekers locally, but one man who "left in disgust" said he later discovered some others had also.

Those who remained drew up plans to blockade Rosslare port if local TDs fail to support them in their stance. "They're talking about damaging tourism," said Mr Whitehead, "now if you want to do that then blockading the port is a good start."

However, action is needed, said Mr Wilson, and if a blockade is necessary "then so be it".