A Leitrim family, which owns one of the oldest shopping arcades in Ireland, admit they have been overwhelmed by responses after offering a unit free of rent to any Ukrainian entrepreneurs
The Layden family, who previously were involved with Arigna Mines, tweeted earlier this month that they would offer the unit in the city centre free of charge of rent to any refugee who might want to start their own business
The tweet has been liked over 4,000 times and gathered significant attention on social media,.
The family previously froze rent for tenants during the pandemic.
Dear Ukrainian Business Person 🇺🇦
A unit for your business to start as gift . As with all startups and New to Ireland 🇮🇪, at Arcade , No rent or costs and full support to start .
Welcome, you are so welcome ❤️☘️
Gwen Layden Landlord
[email protected] pic.twitter.com/IrjUowpgPu— George Street Arcade (@georgesarcade) April 16, 2022
Gwen Layden is the daughter of Drumshanbo native Joe Layden and she is a director of the company
She says the reaction was a complete surprise to them:
"It's nothing that we haven't been doing before.
So I was surprised at the reaction but of course, anything we can do now to help anybody who needs help, certainly Ukrainian families.
There has been a big number of Ukrainians contacting me and I've been meeting them and there are just a lovely people so if I had more units I could fill a whole centre but there you are."
You can here from Gwen here:
https://www.shannonside.ie/podcasts/lets-talk/leitrims-layden-family-surprised-at-reaction-to-offer-to-ukrainian-business-people-202970
