Several hundred people who attended the Galway Anti-Racism Network (GARN) march also heard calls for an end to direct provision, which activist Margaretta D’Arcy described as “a State system of internment”. Zimbabwean national Obert Makaza, who works as a direct provision support worker with Galway City Partnership, said that the Government must follow up on its acknowledgement that the system was “not working”. A number of residents in Galway city’s two direct provision centres participated in the march from Salthill’s Eglinton centre to the Great Western hostel in Eyre Square. Among those supporting the march were Galway residents Séamus Diskin and Mary Cunningham. Ms Cunningham, a teacher, said that she saw at first hand the impact that direct provision had on young school pupils, and for this reason she felt she had to attend.

Source: The Irish Times January 20, 2018 17:37 UTC