McHugh's Miscellany: Ukrainian refugees and Bundoran's population
There is quite an interesting story that pertains to Bundoran inviting a few extra visitors to the fledgling resort back in 1911 to increase their population on census night.
Of course, then it had the benefit of the magnificent Great Northern Railway which had helped establish the north west watering hole as a destination day out or a longer period of relaxation in the hotels and B&Bs of the area.
Many accounts bear witness to the throngs incoming off the trains and flowing into the Station Road in their hundreds.
As it turned into the 20th century it was ascertained that the bigger the population, the better the kind of local authority you could develop.
The swell in visitors appears to have worked in 1911, with even promises of free accommodation, as a couple of years thereafter they moved away from a Ballyshannon based rural area District Council to that of Bundoran urban council.
It has suffered the vagaries of the economic cycles of other Donegal towns over the decades but unlike many other towns and more akin to the farmers, the people of Bundoran have always had to make hay while the sun shone. It is the nature of a seaside resort.
Occupancy in summer. Much emptier in the winter.
And while the seasons have been extended well beyond the traditional summer and Easter season sojourns, there are many empty beds out of season.
So when the Irish government began looking for accommodation for Ukrainian refugees in February, places like Bundoran seemed a natural fit.
Indeed I met some of the very first arrivals and interviewed them myself.
None of us knew what the future held or how long before they returned home. Well we are now at the end of October and we read that there is no more room at the inn or inns, whether Bundoran, Donegal or Ireland.
But upon examining the makeup of refugees in the county at the start of last week I noted that it was the seaside resort that had the most number of Ukrainians in the county.
That figure saw Bundoran hosting 548 refugees and Letterkenny with 535.
The Bundoran population was just short of 2,000 back in 2016
after its population dipped according to the 2011 census. Its 2022
figures when officially made available by the CSO will include early
Ukrainian refugees
The county Ukrainian refugee figure was calculated to be just short of 4,000.
Full data is not available on what the Bundoran population would have been on Census Day April 3, 2022 as it no doubt included at least some of our recent visitors in the guise of the Ukrainian refugees.
So the only dependable stats available is the population of Bundoran in 2016 and that is 1,963, after it had lost population numbers in the 2011 census.
By my calculations, that would see Ukrainians account for 26.5% of the Bundoran population, if based on how many people lived in the resort in 2016.
People have multiple views on the impact of this for a small town in the north west and its accommodation capabilities or lack thereof for returning and new tourists visiting the resort, but will it herald the return of a new local council?