‘It is a very beautiful place’: Ukrainians in Leitrim glad to stay in county after hotel move

About 90 per cent of the almost 200 Ukrainian refugees based at the Lough Allen hotel in Drumshanbo, Co Leitrim who were recently given just two weeks to find somewhere new to live are still based in the county, it has emerged.

Shock in the town at the announcement that the hotel would from May 31st no longer be used to accommodate beneficiaries of temporary protection (BOTP) was channelled into finding homes for families who had work and school commitments locally.

Among those relieved to be remaining in Leitrim is Viktoria Kolesnichenko (41), who was offered a room in a private house in Carrick-on-Shannon and so can keep her job as a cleaner in Drumshanbo.

“Yes, of course I am happy,” says the native of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine. “They are a very kind, very helpful family. I can go to work on the bus.”

She says she was very upset when told she would be leaving the hotel. “We were like a big family. I did not know where I would go.”

With a return to Chernihiv impossible in the foreseeable future, she adds she is happy to be staying in Leitrim. “It is a very beautiful place.”

Maksym Sharii (23), from Odessa, had been living at the hotel for five months.

He now shares a small house “on the mountain”, a five-minute drive from Drumshanbo. “It is a lovely place but I don’t have a car and I work in Carrick. There are no neighbours around,” says the physiotherapist, who depends on friends to get to work.

He says more notice should have been provided, especially for families who lived in the hotel for two years.

“We are not tourists. We are people with lives and jobs and schools.”

Many locals, including parish priest Fr Frankie Murray, had criticised the short notice given to the hotel residents.

[ ‘The rug has been pulled’: Ukrainians in Drumshanbo scramble for accommodation after notice to vacate ]

Fr Murray says he got into a bit of trouble with some of “my holy friends” when he said Jesus would not be asking anyone at the gates of Heaven how many times they had done Lough Derg or climbed Croagh Patrick, but would be more interested in how welcome they had made the stranger.

“We were all disappointed because they had become part of the place,” says Fr Murray, who adds he is delighted that the majority of residents still live in Co Leitrim.

Nataliya Byrlynakova, who moved from Ukraine to Ireland 25 years ago and works with Leitrim Development Company as an interpreter and support worker, believes that close to 90 per cent of the Ukrainians who were living at the hotel will continue to live in Leitrim.

“I know one woman who looked after special needs children in Ukraine and has now moved from Drumshanbo to Carrick. The woman who gave her a room was looking for a childminder.”

Byrlynakova believes that the tax-free Accommodation Recognition Payment (ARP) of €800 per month to anyone providing private accommodation to Ukrainian refugees has been a help.

Local Fine Gael councillor Enda McGloin also knows of cases where Ukrainians are being matched with locals needing support, for example an older woman with a health condition who may take in a qualified nurse from Ukraine. “I think very few had to move to other counties,” says the councillor.

“Hats off to the management of the hotel, they worked night and day to cajole property owners to make properties available,” he says, adding that the county council played a key role through the Offer a Home programme. It provides accommodation in vacant homes including holiday homes or dwellings not on the private rental market.

A council spokesman said 188 BOTPs were relocated from the hotel on May 30th, 95 of them through the Offer a Home or private ARP programmes.

The remaining 93 residents were accommodated by the Department of Integration and 73 per cent of those going to State accommodation remained in Co Leitrim while 25 per cent were accommodated in Co Sligo and 2 per cent in Co Longford.

A spokesman for the Department of Integration said interest in the €800-a-month ARP, which launched in July 2022, continues to grow. “Almost €71 million in payments issued to hosts in 2023 and, as of 12th June, 2024, over €140 million has been paid to over 16,000 hosts in respect of hosting almost 35,900 BOTPs since the scheme’s launch,” he added.