Alternative accommodation is to be sought for a Travelling family in Co Wexford after local residents objected to them moving in to their area.
Residents began protesting last week outside the house on Woodview Drive in Adamstown which Wexford County Council had allocated to Ms Winnie McDonagh, her 21-year-old daughter, and her sons, aged 20 and 14.
The McDonaghs, who live in two small caravans on a roadside close to New Ross, have now decided not to move into the house. Ms McDonagh said yesterday she was not prepared to take the house in light of the residents' reaction. "I wouldn't go out there now. They're taking the law into their own hands, I know, but I wouldn't be satisfied there."
Residents of the Woodview estate insisted they were not anti-Traveller, pointing out that there were already two Travelling families living there. They were objecting to Ms McDonagh, a widow who was born in Leitrim, because she was an "outsider".
"If local Travelling families want the house they're welcome to it," said a community spokesman, Mr John Whelan. "I think there are two local Travelling families on the housing list who have been there for two years. There would be no objection to them. It wasn't an anti-Traveller protest."
One Traveller living in the estate, who didn't want to be named, confirmed he supported the residents' protest. "She's from a different culture, up the country," he said.
Wexford County Council's housing officer, Mr Niall McDonnell, said Ms McDonagh had "clearly indicated" she no longer wished to take up the offer of accommodation in Adamstown. He would now be talking to officials in New Ross Urban District Council about the possibility of finding Ms McDonagh accommodation in that town.
He said the house in Adamstown was to have been allocated to the family on a temporary basis only as Ms McDonagh had always indicated a preference to be housed in New Ross. The council's decision to give her the house in Adamstown was taken during court proceedings brought by a New Ross resident to have the family moved from where they are now living.
Mr McDonnell denied that the success of the residents' protest had created a precedent which might make the housing of Travellers more difficult elsewhere. He said the council had successfully housed 75 Travelling families in the past decade or so, sometimes in the face of local opposition, and would continue to do so where necessary.
Ms McDonagh said she had been living in the New Ross area for the past seven years, including the last 17 months in her current location at Ely Walk, on the Wexford side of the town. Her youngest son, Larry, attends a local primary school.
