Refugee Week – New Horizon Athlone

World Refugee week in Athlone runs from 18 to 23rd June 2022.

New Horizon Refugee and Asylum Seeker Support and Friends would like to invite you to come and celebrate the lives and cultures of the 500 people who have taken shelter among us.

We have a range of fun and exciting events in Athlone; Football and Circus and Book launch, Arts and Music.

Check out our video and our Poster

Calendar of Events

Date	Time	Location	Description
Sat 18th June	10am to 4pm	Willow Park Football Grounds	‘World Cup’ football competition organised by Athlone African Society
Sun 19th June	3pm to 5pm	Civic Square, Athlone	Great Circus Extravaganza Young people display their extraordinary circus skills, juggling and stilt walking and acrobatics and lots more. Checkout the circus programme. Thanks to Galway Community Circus and Gateway Youth Project.
Mon 20th June	6:30	Aidan Heavey Library, Athlone	Book and Audio Launch Tales My Granny Told Me’ are stories collected from residents in the Athlone Accommodation Unit. Stories will be broadcast by Athlone Community Radio and stored in the National Archive. Launched by Prof. Kevin Rafter Chair of the Arts Council of Ireland See Tales My Granny Told Me Thanks to Create, National Development Agency for Collaborative Arts for generous funding of this very important project. Also to Athlone Community Radio, who have been good friends for many years.
Tue 21st June	11am to 3pm	Luan Gallery, Athlone	Visit Luan Gallery – Guided tour of exhibition ‘The Soul of Matter’ with artist, Derick Smith, and curator Valeria Ceregini. – Drop in art workshop for children
Tues 21st June	11am to 3pm	Athlone Castle	Free Tours of Athlone Castle Discover the colourful history of Athlone, its castle and people. – Interactives & Games – Stunning views of Athlone
Thurs 23rd June	6pm	Technological University of the Shannon	Trading Tunes in TUS This is an opportunity to explore Irish and Ukrainian music and culture. Lecture theatre at 6:00 pm.
Thurs 23rd June	6pm	Aidan Heavey Library, Athlone	Tree of Hope Art Exhibition Launch An exhibition of Artworks created by Syrian English language learners in Kilbeggan. Amal in Arabic, mean hope, prospect, expectancy and trust See Tree of Hope

We hope that you can join us in one or several of these events.

Welcome all!

FAQ’s

We are a front line refugee support group mainly working on the Lissywollen Direct Provision site in Athlone. Our focus is on providing information and help to the 300 (on average) residents living there.

We also work on the Temple Direct Provision site in Horseleap, Moate.

Everyone in the DP sites in Athlone and Temple is what is described as a ‘Convention’ refugee. People who have arrived in Ireland under a United Nations resettlement program are known as ‘Programme’ refugees.

Convention refugees are people who have made their own way to Ireland and have applied for recognition of refugee status when they arrive.

Various official and unofficial routes and methods are used to travel to Ireland. These change continually, depending on weather conditions and enforcement levels at crossings.

On arrival people are normally housed for a few weeks in Baleskin, near Dublin airport. They are then dispersed to various direct provision centres around the country.

People can get protection if they meet the conditions set out in The United Nations Convention on Protection of Refugees.

See Definition of a Refugee

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