The west Cork town of Clonakilty, with a population of less than 5,000, tends not to get many visitors outside the tourist season.
Now, however, 61 refugees have arrived in the town from countries as far apart as Somalia and Romania under the same refugee resettlement programme which brought Kosovan refugees to the Republic last year.
They are staying at the Clonakilty Travel Lodge courtesy of the Government, and the manager there, Mr Roy Maguire, says the experience is a little chaotic but very refreshing.
The 61 refugees, men, women and children, have been settling in well and are liked by the local people, who have arrived at the Travel Lodge with clothes and toys.
The refugees are on full board and get three meals a day in the hotel. They have been keeping mostly to themselves, but their potential as new members of a west Cork community is about to be realised.
One youngster has joined a local soccer club and is thought to have great potential. Two others have joined the local singing club, while a 20-year-old from Romania who has been a wrestling champion in his own country is about to join the Clonakilty rugby club.
Mr Maguire says people from the various nations are getting on well and a camaraderie has developed between the eastern European refugees and the Nigerians, who arrived in Clonakilty a week ago.
"I suppose you could call it organised chaos, but everything is going well. The rule seems to be that if a child needs minding, it will be minded by anyone who is around at the time," he says.
Two of the refugees who were given second-hand clothes by local townspeople recently went to their rooms to try them on and found a £5 note in a pocket. They immediately brought the money to reception and when they were told to keep their good luck, they went into the town and bought a box of chocolates for the hotel staff.
Because of language difficulties, an appeal has gone out from a local schoolteacher in the town for a specialised English-language teacher.