Reopened Flood’s Cross camp 

THE reopened temporary accommodation at Flood’s Cross at Newhall, on the northern outskirts of Naas has enjoyed some seasonal peace according to the site owner.

“I’ve been away a bit, but I haven’t heard a dickie-bird,” said Fintan Flood, the landowner of the accommodation centre from Ukrainian refugees, from whom we sought for a seasonal update.

“It’s all quiet there now, and isn’t it a good time for peace, peace to all men?” said Fintan Flood.

“The poor people here were being bombed to bits on a daily basis, had no heat or electricity, and were being deliberately frozen out of their homes – it’d bring a tear to your eye,” he noted.

“It’s all quiet there except for this bit of charity towards our visitors.

“I saw we had President (Volodymir) Zelensky in the Dáil, and that was only proper, so let’s hope there’s a lot more peace in the world in 2026,” said Fintan.

Originally built in February and March 2024 to house up to 1,000 refugees, it was closed and dismantled only nine months ago in March, but then re-opened again in October for another 350 arrivals, although only for a 90-day tenure, according to the Department of Justice.

The centre attracted a protest camp outside the fence for a couple of months when it was first built, but this gradually faded away after a few months after some noise and unrest.

“I’ve had pigs heads thrown at me, shite thrown over the gate, my wife and children abuse, and I had to give up a seat on a local board after being screamed at that I was a people trafficker,” said Fintan when we interviewed him last March at closedown.

“But, we did a bit of good, and we’re very proud of it,” he said.

“You’d see somebody coming in with legs blown off, yet a week later you could be having a cup of tea with them and they wouldn’t be shaking any more.

“I remember the first time we had to do the mandatory fire alarm test, and the first thing everybody did was dive under the tables, because it sounded like an air raid.

“When I asked why, they said that every time they heard that sound over the last few years it meant bombs were coming.

“But the biggest thing we could provide for them? Silence.

“I met a mother who hadn’t slept in months, and what she said about Newhall was the silence and the sleep.

“That’s what I feel good about. When you can look a mother in the eyes, and she was happy because she could let her children sleep”.