Friends of Bridgewater House group is 20 years supporting asylum seekers in Carrick-on-Suir

The Friends of Bridgewater House Committee is 20 years in existence helping asylum seekers residing at Carrick-on-Suir’s direct provision centre to integrate into the town’s community.

The group of mostly local volunteers, founded in 2003, has without pomp and ceremony and with admirable humanity, done much to welcome of hundreds of people from far off lands to the town they are sent to live in while their applications for asylum are assessed.

The committee was formed about two years after the former Mercy Convent and school off Carrick’s Main Street was first opened as a residential centre for refugees and asylum seekers.

Martina Walsh was manager of Bridgewater House for 16 years and is now the centre’s community liaision officer. She is one of the eight members of the Friends of Bridgewater House Committee that apart from local volunteers includes two representatives of the direct provision centre’s residents.

She explains that the committee helps Bridgewater House residents to get involved in volunteering in local organisations, sign up for education courses and apply for jobs. It also provides assistance with their quest to secure refugee status and housing if their asylum application is approved.

The Committee also organises with the help of fundraising and grants, a wide variety of social activities, events and outings for the 165 residents, who include 70 children.

“We run weekly pilates classes with Geraldine Houlihan, healthy eating plans, workshops, day trips for the kids, swimming, sewing classes. We organise gym membership, photography classes with photographer Noreen Duggan, Lego workshops, arts and crafts, nature camps  and Africa Day celebrations.”

Christmas outings to World of Bounce & Mini-Farm a few miles from Carrick-on-Suir and Winterval in Waterford for the children living at Bridgewater House on December and a Christmas party for the centre’s residents are the most recent events organised by the committee.

Martina paid tribute to the late Mercy Sister de Porres, who instigated the setting up of the Friends of Bridgewater House in 2003 following her retirement as principal of Carrick’s Scoil Mhuire Secondary School.

She said Sr de Porres approached her as the centre’s manager with the idea. “She was a great help to me; she was just out on her own, the backbone of the group,” she recalled.

Martina also paid tribute to Marian Landers, who has been involved in the committee since the beginning and last year stepped down from her role as chairperson after many years.

“Marian is the heart of many great causes in the community and we appreciate the work she has done to help integrate the residents, bringing them set dancing and helping them with performances in Brewery Lane Theatre, the Heritage Centre and Carrick Further Education & Training College.

She also thanked Bridgewater House manager Pat Power and staff, who include Marie Fitzpatrick, another long-time member of the Friends of Bridgewater House Committee.

Tom O’Keeffe is the new chairman of Friends of Bridgewater House Committee and has also been a member of the group since its foundation. He was invited to become involved with the committee due to his work with St Vincent de Paul in Carrick-on-Suir.

He recalls in the Committee’s early days they gave financial support to Bridgewater House residents such as monetary gifts at Christmas but this need changed after 2017 when the asylum seekers were allowed to get jobs while their application are processed.

The majority of residents are now working in the community in jobs ranging from health care workers to sales.

Tom points out that the centre’s location in the heart of the town has greatly helped its residents not just with accessing shops, education, and services but integrating into the local community.

He praised the people of Carrick-on-Suir for the support they have given the residents of Bridgewater House over the years. “I think it’s a great credit to the town,” he said.

Nasra Yussuf, a medical doctor, from Somalia is one of the Bridgewater House residents representatives on the committee.

She has been living in the centre since last April after leaving her home country due to political instability.

She helps out with organising Friends of Bridgewater House social activities and events for the centre’s adults and children.
Nasra says she has been made feel very welcome in Carrick-on-Suir and loves the town. “It’s the people that make the place; Carrick-on-Suir is a very great and beautiful town,”

Thanks to the help and support she has received from the Friends of Bridgewater House, Nasra says she feels included in the local society.

She recently completed a six week stint as a volunteer at the new Jack & Jill Foundation charity shop on Main Street. She now plans to study for exams to allow her work as a doctor in Ireland.

Nasra said the opportunities the Friends of Bridgewater House have given her to help with running their activities and get involved in the community has really lifted her spirits after arriving in a new country and culture.

“They have never made me feel like an outsider. I am very grateful to have met them. I am so happy and grateful to the people of Carrick, especially the people I have met. I feel I am in my home.

Pictured below: Martina Walsh of Friends of Bridgwater House with a group of children from Bridgewater House Direct Provision Centre at a recent outing to World of Bounce & Mini-Farm near Carrick-on-Suir