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STUDENTS IN NUI Galway and Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) have heavily criticised residents and councillors in Newcastle and Dangan for campaigning against a 400-bed student development.
GMIT Students’ Union president Mark O’Brien described the opposition to the housing development as a “classic example of not in my backyard” view and a “discriminatory blockade” against students.
The Westwood Hotel in Newcastle was sold to a UK-based student accommodation company called Ziggurat in February. The developer plans to replace the hotel with a 400-bed housing block for students.
A residents’ meeting entitled ‘Save the Westwood Hotel Campaign’ was held in July, where 200 locals unanimously agreed that they were opposed to the construction of student accommodation on the site.
Local Fianna Fáil councillor Ollie Crowe was in attendance at the meeting. Like local residents, he opposes the plans.
Crowe told TheJournal.ie that with the NUIG campus close to the neighbourhood, the area is already highly populated by students.
“They’re saying its student apartments but I believe that it’s an over-intensification of the site. It’s not a huge site by any means,” Crowe told TheJournal.ie.
“The students are a vital part of the vibrancy and a vital part of life in the city of Galway. We have in excess of 25,000 students.
It’s an aging population in the area and my believe is the residents who have lived here for 30 or 40 years have to be respected as well.
However, O’Brien suggested today that the number of beds being made available will alleviate the pressure from the students in GMIT and NUIG “scrambling for somewhere to sleep”.
NUIG students’ union president Lorcán Ó Maoileannaigh said that the development could have “a great potential for regeneration, civic activities and engagement”.
The Union of Students in Ireland said in a statement that it was concerned that small groups of residents could prevent student accommodation being constructed in local areas and that it could be “damaging of stereotypes of students”.
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Ballina is right to be proud as Ireland should be of a man who may be a son of Deleware and the USA but a son of Eireann too…what a welcome he will get when he returns as President
@Kevin50: I here too son of Eireann…
Why did I read that as “Coke and Champagne”.
@John Sheahan: it’s Ballina, not South Dublin :-)
@Joe Vlogs: it’s like the virus, it’s everywhere
@John Sheahan: article would have been more interesting if it was about that!
I hope that Mayo will be able to present Sam Maguire to President Joe Biden when he travels to his ancestral home while he is in office.
@C_O’S: Louth have a better chance of doing that.
@Mike Keane: Ouch!
@C_O’S: thanks I needed cheering up and that’s the best laugh I’ve had in ages
@C_O’S: not in this lifetime
James Finnegan from Lordship was Joe Bidens grandfather, I know I researched his family tree, the Blewitts in Ballina are related through great grandparents.
they’ll all be coming out of the woodwork now with their fiddles and harps and highfalutin stories of the bygone days
Great for Ballina hope to see the yanks roll in after covid
Biden is from Cork ffs. “Bye then”…Hello???
It’s all horse manure
Only 170 years late
Rumours have it locally anyway that President Joe Biden has relatives in Taghmon Co Wexford
It’s “Wahu”. Not “Whau”!
have your say