Galway hotel fire: Police treating burning of 19th Century Georgian venue as suspected arson after inferno destroyed site set to house 70 asylum seekers

•  Protesters gathered outside hotel in Rosscahill, Co. Galway, hours before blaze

A  blaze which ripped through a country hotel that had been earmarked to accommodate 70 refugees is being treated as arson by gardaí.

Flames engulfed the 19th century Georgian Ross Lake House Hotel, in Rosscahill, near Oughterard, Co. Galway, at 11.35pm on Saturday – just hours after protesters formed a blockade outside the entrance protesting Government plans to house international protection applicants there from Thursday.

The fire broke out at the back of the hotel and by the time fire units had arrived, it was almost completely engulfed. 

Fire services brought the blaze under control after several hours and nobody was injured or inside the building when it broke out.

The hotel, which had 13 rooms and suites and was built in 1850, was formerly an estate house of the landed gentry, who prized it for its ‘serenity’. 

An inferno ripped through a 19th Century Georgian country hotel in Galway. Police are treating the blaze as a suspected arson

A Google image of the Ross Lake House Hotel, in Rosscahill, Co.Galway. The fire broke out at the back of the hotel

Hours before, protesters formed a blockade outside the hotel entrance in opposition to Department of Integration plans to host applicants there.

Local residents, of which 300 live in the area, were informed by Government officials last Friday.

READ MORE: Irish police probe inferno at 19th Century Georgian venue set to house 70 asylum seekers

Integration Minister Roderic O’Gorman condemned what he described a ‘disgraceful act’.

He wrote on X: ‘Politicians across the board should condemn this disgraceful act and the fear mongering that led to it.’

Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin said: ‘This is not who we are as a people. We are so much better than this. We must not tolerate this hatred.’

Socialist Party deputy Ruth Coppinger tweeted: ‘So there is a blockade and then a fire. Disgusting racism and all while gardaí, media, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael look on.’

The hotel had been under private ownership and had not been used for several years.

Protesters outside the hotel on Saturday, who did not want to be identified, said they were ‘willing to stay there for however long it took for the Government to reverse their decision’.

One woman, who did not want to be named, said after the blaze that she was ‘horrified’ and asked: ‘What type of individual sets fire to a building instead of letting vulnerable people be sheltered there?’ 

A map showing the location of the fire which started on Saturday at 11.35pm

Fire crews brought the fire under control and a technical examination of the site is taking place later today

Speaking on RTÉ Radio One’s This Week, Green Party senator Pauline O’Reilly said: ‘I think all of the actions which have taken place there are pure intimidation. I’m utterly disgusted. 

‘I don’t think this is representative of Galway people and people have to remember it’s not only those who are coming legally seeking refuge but also those who have come to our country and the kind of fear this instills in people.

‘There are ways of speaking to politicians and of getting points across but blockading a place, making people feel unwelcome when they are being legally accommodated somewhere, is unacceptable.’

It is unclear whether refugees will now be accommodated locally. 

Ms O’Reilly said ‘if some place is vacant it should be used to accommodate people’ and ‘we can’t discriminate against the type of people we want’.

‘The stoking by local politicians and utter silence from senior politicians in the area, from Government and from Opposition and I would ask everyone to come out and condemn this type of behaviour as it’s simply not acceptable in our community,’ she said.

In Wexford, protests against turning the old Great Western Hotel into a International Protection centre continued yesterday. 

Protests, which have blocked Europort traffic in both directions, are now in their second month. 

Protesters formed a blockade outside the entrance protesting Government plans to house international protection applicants there 

At the recent Oireachtas Justice Committee inquiry into the Dublin riots, Green Party TD Patrick Costello said: ‘In Buncrana, there are reports of community organisations coming together to have vigilante patrols. In Dromahair there were checkpoints… People being interrogated. We saw that in Inch too.’

The Taoiseach and Tánaiste condemned the attack while Justice Minister Helen McEntee said she was ‘appalled’, adding: ‘There is no justification for arson. While people have the right to protest, people do not have the right to cause damage to property, to cause people to fear for their safety or threaten public order.’

The Department of Integration was contacted for comment.

Contact Clifden Garda Station on 095 22500, or the confidential line on 1800 666 111.

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