Latest plantation site is another of the old planter mansions, this time in Galway.

Described as splendid 19th Century Georgian House of the landed gentry, who prized it for its serenity amidst rambling woods and rolling lawns, Ross Lake House sits down a lane off the Clifden Road in Killaguile, about 7km before Oughterard. An American family bought it last year while it was still in operation as a hotel.

A briefing document from the government says 70 beds are going into it on the 21st of December with a one year contract for international protection applicants — that's the non-Ukrainian variety of asylum seekers. There are no other official details.

The lads already have the lane barricaded with some logs but reinforcements are welcome.

There's an old badger fighting pit on the front lawn so maybe when all this is over Roderic can have a go in there to see how he fares. I've heard badgers are vicious but have never seen them scrapping.

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Internal polling by Sinn Féin in central Dublin is said to have shown the party is unlikely to increase its share of seats on the city council and may actually lose some to immigration reform candidates.

Sinn Féin are wobbling.

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Ross Lake House in Galway on fire tonight.

Built in 1850, the former hotel was earmarked to accommodate 70 single male asylum seekers from the 21st of December.

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The tragic thing about Ross Lake House is that the couple who sold their Texan home to buy it were really excited by their purchase and had a youtube, instagram & tiktok with 33k followers dedicated to the property's renovation, which they renamed back to what the planters had originally called it—Killaguile House.

They were loving their retirement in Galway, with a daughter in the Rose of Tralee and a son in Riverdance.

Then in early December, everything was mysteriously wiped from their social media—well, almost everything. Shannon Kincaid still has footage on her facebook gardening the property with her husband, Allen Stringer, in the background while she admires the large number of rhododendrons on the grounds—an invasive species introduced to Ireland by the planters in the 1700s.

Though they may appear beautiful, the rhododendron is in fact a death warrant to the patches of the countryside it invades and need to be cut and then burned to prevent regrowth.

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According to Fianna Fáil Councillor Noel Thomas, the damage to Ross Lake House from the fire is devastating.

When asked about the extent of the damage he told Galway Beo: "It's all gone."

Meanwhile, Fianna Fáil councillor for Connemara North, Séamus Walsh, has told Galway Bay FM that while nobody could condone criminal damage, the government needs to take some responsibility.

"If it was a criminal act we have to stand back and look at it. What made that criminal act happen? And it's the senseless policy of the government."

"The people are living in fear, as I said, and if it was done maliciously, it is absolutely the fear for the safety and well-being of their families that drove people to this."

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A tour of Ross Lake House, AKA Killaguile House, by its new owners from Texas, before the Georgian mansion was destroyed in a fire last night, after it was announced that 70 asylum seekers were set to be accommodated there. The former hotel was bought for €1.4 million in 2022.

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