Welcome to Ireland – New Horizon Athlone

Ireland

Ireland is an island in the North Atlantic. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel, the Irish Sea and St George’s Channel. Ireland is the second-largest island of the British Isles, the third-largest in Europe, and the twentieth-largest on Earth.

The island of Ireland is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially named Ireland), which covers five-sixths of the island, and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, in the northeast of the island.

In 2018, the population of the island of Ireland was about 6.7 million, ranking it the second-most populous island in Europe after Great Britain. More than 4.8 million people live in the Republic of Ireland and just over 1.8 million live in Northern Ireland.

The island has relatively low-lying mountains surrounding a central plain, with several navigable rivers extending inland. The island has lush vegetation, a product of its mild but changeable climate which avoids extremes in temperature. The Irish climate is very moderate. As a result, winters are milder than expected for such a northerly area with infrequent frost and snow. Summers are cooler than those in Continental Europe with abundant rainfall and cloud cover.

Travelling to the U.K.

Travel between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland is usually uncontrolled and it is frequently difficult to know where the border is. The Garda National Immigration Bureau (GNIB) and British immigration occasionally have checks on public transport crossing the border.

If you have applied for asylum in the Republic of Ireland you are not automatically entitled to travel to Northern Ireland. Ask for advice before attempting to cross the border.

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