Shine’s guesthouse clarifies position on asylum seeker link

The owner of Shine’s Bar & Guesthouse, Baylough, Athlone, has moved to respond to social media criticism over the premises being linked with providing accommodation to international protection applicants.

Stephen Groarke, in a post on social media, said he had been informed on April 16 last that the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth was no longer considering Shine’s Guesthouse for the accommodation of international protection applicants.

Mr Groarke said he was writing the note to clarify two issues which had recently arisen on social media.

He said: “There is a suggestion that Shines Bar is closing with an intention of changing from a public house to an IPAS centre. This is not true. Shines Bar is open and will remain open, and will continue to trade as a public house into the future.

“There is a suggestion that the building is now to be converted into some kind of refugee centre/IPAS centre. Again, this is not true,” he continued.

Outling the history of the matter, Mr Groarke said, on February 25, he contacted the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth to see if they had an interest in filling four empty rooms in his guesthouse with international protection applicants.

He said he specified that he had an interesting in filling the vacant rooms with “women and children or families, no single males.”

He continued: “On the 28th February 2025 I submitted the necessary application to the Department seeking to house 4 families/women and children in the 4 empty rooms in the Guesthouse. I had hoped to get 8, 10 or 12 people.

“This application was the only application submitted by me to the Department and I can confirm that the application, in its body specifically stated that 4 rooms can be made available to the Department- women and children/families only.

“That application form referenced the need for an exemption in order for them to consider it and so I made the necessary application.”

Explaining the inability to take single males, he said: “I have Ukrainians in the other 4 rooms in the Guesthouse with 6 children, 5 under the age of 12 years, and I am not prepared under any circumstances to allow single males in interact with them.

“On the 16th April 2025, I received an email from the Department stating that:

“the IPPS Team will no longer be considering the offered property listed under the title Shines Guesthouse, Athlone, County Westmeath for accommodation for International Protection Applicants”.

Stating “there it lies”, Mr Groarke went on to say: “The application was prepared with community in mind and with a view to ensuring that there was no threat to the local community which I have been a part of for the last 28 years.

“The rush to protest should not take away from the fact that the business which you protest against is a small family run business on the outskirts of Athlone.

“An application, even if it had been successful, to house up to 4 families or women and children does not constitute “another Lissywoolen”.

He said he was open to agreeing a mediator, if necessary, to vouch the correspondence as outlined.