Sithembiso Ndlovu stepped outside the Gateway Integration Centre on Dublin’s East Wall Road for the first time on the morning of December 23rd, 2022. The offices in the surrounding area had closed for Christmas and the streets felt quiet. However, Ndlovu was nervous. She’d seen the videos of protesters outside the building she now called home and knew some in the local community did not want her there.
“We walked in twos and threes to the shop that day,” says Ndlovu. Originally from Zimbabwe, Ndlovu had arrived in Ireland three weeks previously seeking international protection.
“I felt threatened. I felt scared and lost. In the shops, you could see people looking at you, talking about you. It felt painful.”
Ndlovu was among the first group of women to arrive at the international protection accommodation centre in East Wall, a few weeks after it first opened to 100 male residents on November 18th, 2022.
In the days following the men’s arrival, scores of people gathered outside the centre calling for residents to be sent elsewhere. A video posted on Facebook on November 19th, 2022, shows crowds chanting “get them out” and “we don’t want them in our community”. Another video from the same day shows a couple of women shouting “you won’t be here for long, we’re gonna get youse out”.
Word of the protests spread quickly, with anti-immigration and far-right activists flocking to the area to make videos and speeches about the “replacement” of the Irish people. Participants from other parts of the city joined, even when some of the original protesters stepped back. In December, protesters brought Dublin’s rush-hour traffic to standstill when participants marched through the north inner city.
By the time families started to arrive at the centre in early January 2023, the larger-scale protests had ended. However, about a dozen individuals continued to gather outside the Gateway centre every Wednesday evening, playing loud music and chanting anti-immigrant slogans, while young children watched from inside the glass building.
“I remember the kids crying seeing those men say we had to leave, that they would burn this place,” says Ndlovu. “We didn’t know what to do. I understand people’s frustration, they think we’re coming to take over their country and get everything for free. But I wish I could get them to listen to our stories and be in our shoes for a day. What pushed us from our own countries? Maybe then they’d understand.”
Nearly 2½ years on from these protests, Ndlovu smiles when asked how she feels living in East Wall today. “The difference now is huge, I don’t even know how to begin telling you how huge it is.”
Ndlovu is referring in part to community acceptance but also to renovations at the former Gateway office block where she lives. The centre is now home to about 450 families, couples and single men and women from across the globe. The canteen area is bustling with activity the afternoon of The Irish Times visits. Across the corridor, a couple of women sort donations in what has become known as “The Shop” – a well-organised and brightly lit room lined with shelves of second-hand clothing and shoes. Down the corridor, a teenage boy focuses on his homework in the quiet study room, next door a young man picks up a letter from the designated postal room, while a toddler and his mother play in the nearby multicoloured children’s room.
Judith Nwagazue, who arrived in the centre in early 2024, often brings her two-year-old daughter Elena and eight-month-old son Adriel to the playroom and takes part in the centre’s weekly toddler group. A single mother, Nwagazue admits caring for her children in the centre is “demanding and challenging”, particularly when she must carry them with her every time she walks down the hall to use the bathroom.
“But I am grateful to have a roof over my head and the management are great. They try really hard for us, especially the mothers with babies.”
Like Ndlovu, she says she understands the local community’s concerns about new arrivals. “I don’t blame them, they’re just trying to be protective of their country. But on the other hand, I wish they could understand the reasons we came here.”
The Gateway centre is a far cry from the images of rooms packed with bunk beds which many have come to associate with direct provision.
“We felt like direct provision had become very hidden in Ireland, you were never able to walk into a centre,” says Gateway director Sinéad Fennelly. “We didn’t want to be ashamed of this place.”
Fennelly and her team, who took over the centre’s management in April 2023, have focused on removing the “office feel” of the place. “Even down to signage was important. I’ve seen in other centres the tone of signs is very rules-based and that causes tension. People had an image of the centre in their minds, they presumed it was a horror show inside. When we started welcoming people inside they were shocked.”
When they first took over, staff focused on creating “a home” for asylum seekers, while “weathering the storm” of the protests, says centre manager Declan McKenna. “It was all fear-based,” he says, reflecting on the Wednesday-evening protests, which lasted for months. “It’s fear of the worst-case scenario and the vast majority of the time that scenario doesn’t occur.”
The centre’s core focus is “transparency and honesty”, McKenna says. “We don’t just sit in an office – we talk to the residents, we learn about their lives. We don’t even consider this direct provision, it’s a dedicated space for people to live as humanely as possible on their journey looking for international protection.”
Keen to form links with the local community, Fennelly set up a fund to help local clubs and sports groups link up with children in the centre. “We have a budget for outings and social events for the residents so we decided to put a community fund formally in place. We wanted to forge a permanent relationship with these clubs that are taking the children in.”
Alan Gannon, a brother of Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon, is community engagement officer at the centre.
The operators of international protection accommodation centres have a “responsibility” to invest in their properties and create a positive atmosphere, says Fennelly. “It shouldn’t be secret. If you can’t open your doors you need to ask yourself why?”
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Fennelly acknowledges a “small minority” of East Wall residents remain unhappy about the centre but says the majority now welcome residents. However, some of these people are “afraid to vocally come out and support us”, she adds. The Irish Times attempted to speak with a community member who took part in the 2022 protests but now supports the centre. After a number of rejections, local resident Derek, who preferred not to give his surname, agreed to talk.
He says he joined the protests because he believed claims that his wife and daughter would be in danger walking the streets of East Wall.
“But, in the months after that, I see how much work the people within the complex have done and how they’re integrating the men, women and children into the community,” he told The Irish Times over WhatsApp. These new arrivals, and their children who have joined local sports clubs, have been a “massive benefit” to the area, he says.
“It opened people’s eyes to what we what we thought was coming in, and what actually did come in, with just ordinary, decent people that wanted a better life for themselves. All in all, I have changed my thought on all these centres. They’re a great idea.”
Roxanna Nic Liam, who was working in a local East Wall cafe when the rumours started circulating that a centre was opening, was one of the first local residents to join the East Wall Here For All advocacy group. She says the community felt divided for about six months. “You’d be scared to bring it up, I worried about saying I volunteered there. But most people have moved on with their lives. The hassle has died down, it’s quiet now. We’re not as needed, which is a good thing.
“I know a lot of people who took part in those protests and went on to help the kids and be very involved. I think when the kids started going to school, that was a turning point. Kids are a great way of bringing people together, they see people at the school gates, it becomes more humanised.”
Rebecca Kehoe, who has run Cross Cultural Conversations language classes for Gateway residents since 2023, says the initial “shameful, disturbing protests” outside the centre are a thing of the past but believes there’s still underlying discontent among some in the community. She recalls the discomfort she felt bringing an African resident for breakfast in a local cafe six months ago. “There were people looking at us, not the staff but the clientele. I felt distinctly uncomfortable and I’m sure he felt it too.
“The centre is established now and most protesters got tired, they had better things to do with their time. But I don’t know if that’s acceptance or that animosity is still there and hidden. It’s calm for now, thankfully.”
