Drogheda’s 44,135 inhabitants have welcomed refugees for two decades, but the sudden loss of the last large hotel without any consultation has put this to the test.

“Everybody’s angry and frustrated but there are not many people speaking out,” Moore says.

The town’s struggles are yet another symptom of how the strain on Ireland’s asylum system has reached crisis point.

This year an average of 60 people have applied for protection every day.

To keep up with demand, the Government needs to find board for 420 arrivals every week in the face of a longstanding housing crisis.

The pressures are most visible an hour away, in Dublin, where parts of the scenic Grand Canal and other areas near the International Protection Office have been fenced off.

Some 1,780 migrants have been forced to sleep outside after accommodation ran out in December.

The result is a repeated cycle of mushrooming tent cities being cleared only to emerge somewhere else.

But outside the capital many towns such as Drogheda are facing their own emergency, as the government scrambles to find accommodation to keep women and children off the street.

It warned in March that this could soon become impossible.

‘Safety is why we are here’

In Drogheda, a Nigerian man stands outside the D Hotel, where he is sharing a room with his heavily pregnant wife, 15-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter.

He has come out to clear his mind and is trying to get an update from the authorities on their asylum application.

He is well aware of the political row between Ireland and the UK and that he and his family are hardly wanted by either government.

“The news can make you depressed, you know,” he says wearily, while asking what the latest is.

He says he has met many fellow migrants fearful of being sent to Rwanda, but insists he came directly from France to Ireland.

Nigerians account for one in three asylum applications so far this year, with many migrants speaking of relatives being killed, kidnappings for ransom and violence.

“Safety is the main thing. That is why we are here,” he says, before making another call.