Multi-ethnic diversity is nothing new to Dublin City Community Co-op however it has been in emergency response mode for the past two years.

“The Co-op has worked with migrants and new communities long before we had the current crisis, but we’ve had to create an emergency response programme – we call it our Refugee Support Project – over the last few years,” said Noel Wardick, Dublin City Community Co-op CEO.

While many migrants are professionals and are more than capable, he said others need the assistance of community workers employed by the Co-op through the Government’s Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme (SICAP).

“We also have a project – funded through DCEDIY – to target vulnerable migrants who have fallen between the cracks. We called it Strength in Diversity because it goes to our deep belief and philosophy that the influx of migrants and new communities has enhanced every aspect of life in the inner city. It has brought colour, energy, dynamism and life back into parts of the city such as Parnell Street that were previously struggling and derelict.

“Very close to 50% of the inner city now declares itself as not born in Ireland. We’re like New York now. The multi-cultural aspect is the area’s defining characteristic.

“Go into any of the schools in the inner city. There’s not that many schools around the country that are 40% from one ethnic community that’s not white Irish,” he said.

Dublin’s inner city was one of the first places in the country to have a hotel contracted in early 2022 to accommodate Ukrainian refugees.

“I couldn’t believe it until I went down to see for myself and saw hundreds of Ukrainians queuing up outside. Then I knew that, wow, we have a situation on our hands.

“It went from that to having 23 centres in our SICAP catchment area housing Ukrainian refugees and IPAs. So when we hear of counties complaining when two centres open…well, we’re dealing with 23.

“We’ve been engaging with multi-culturalism for a very long time and we simply went into the centres and asked how can we help,” said Noel.

See here for more on Dublin City Community Co-op’s work with International Protection Applicants.