This article is from page 15 of the 2006-04-04 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
THE problems faced by up to 15,000 legal foreign workers in Clare will be the topic for discussion when Columban Priest and head of the Irish Immigrant Rights Council, Fr Bobby Gilmore, speaks in Ennis this morning.
Fr Gilmore will speak at the Civic Building at ten this morning (Tuesday) on the invitation of the Network of Service Providers for Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Ennis.
The main focus of the talk will be integration.
“The immigrants tend to cluster in certain areas and with all the industry around the Shannon area, there could be anything from ten to 15,000 immigrants here,” said Fr Gilmore.
“It is very hard to get an accurate number and there is a lot of back and forth all the time with seasonal work”.
Between 1978 and 1992, Fr Gilmore worked with Irish Immigrant’s in Britain where, among other things, he worked with the Birmingham Six and the Guilford Four.
Following this he went to work in Jamaica, where he dealt with the plight of thousands of Cuban Immigrants.