Help is at hand for migrants in new guide to Dublin

NEED TO access a Polish nursery in Clonsilla? Or a Lithuanian school in Inchicore? Looking for the consulate of San Marino? Or Bollywood’s Irish arm? Or even the church of the Syro-Malabar community?

All are listed in a new guide to Dublin for migrants, along with more prosaic entries about the tax office, Fás and the like, which was launched yesterday by President Mary McAleese.

Find Your Way claims to be the first directory to list all community groups representing migrant communities in the capital. An initiative of Dublin City Public Libraries and the Citizens’ Information Service, it also includes information about accessing employment, education, local authority and social welfare services.

The directory, which is accompanied by a handy map, has been published initially in English and Russian, with Polish, Chinese and French versions to come later this month. Portuguese, Romanian, Arabic and Lithuanian translations will be added later.

Mrs McAleese said the guide would provide invaluable assistance to members of Irelands newer communities in settling here, whether permanently or for a short time. She said Irish people had long experience of immigration, and knew of the sense of loss and “amputation of all that is familiar” that accompanies it. However, she added, we also understood the value of gaining the distilled wisdom of those who had gone before us.

Lord Mayor Eibhlin Byrne said that although people were not coming to Ireland in anything like the numbers they once were, now, more than ever, there was a need to promote integration in Dublin.

Almost one-quarter of those visiting Citizens’ Information Service offices are non-Irish, and this proportion rises to 60 per cent in the CIS main office in Dublin, on O’Connell Street. Migrants are also heavy users of Dublin libraries and those using the Central Library in the Ilac Centre come from 132 different countries.

Copies of the new guide can be obtained by e-mailing dublincitycentre@citinfo.ie