Things have been tough for Aisling as for everyone else but signs are that we may be heading into more stable waters thanks to the wonderful institution of the NHS which has pulled out all the stops in delivering vaccines to the people in the UK. Things are taking a more steady course in Ireland... Read More

It has been a most weird time for us all and it will certainly continue to be into the new year at least. This time last year our fears for the future were all about Brexit and having to negotiate the borders between Ireland and the UK. No more driving off the ferry at Dublin... Read More

The Aisling Project has worked with some of the most vulnerable members of the irish community in London during the last 25 years since we began our mission. Aisling started out to help isolated and vulnerable long-term emigrants get in touch with their families in Ireland and return for rehabilitative breaks. The project has had... Read More

About fifteen years ago Aisling had a tiny office in the London Irish Centre in Camden Town. There was just enough room for a desk but if you wanted to sit at it you needed to keep the door open. Back then we had been getting a lot of publicity from a campaign we had... Read More

Aisling gratefully received our annual grant from the Emigrant Servicers Programme this month which is the money distributed by the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin for services to the Irish Abroad. This fund has become a life saver for the emigrant Irish community throughout the world and we can thank a number of people... Read More

We had a great day out at the races in Kempton on Wednesday 16 August. Back in June we were approached by Sarah Finucane, single handed publisher of Irish in Britain what’s-on guide ‘The Craic is Back’ with an idea to raise money for Aisling. The idea was simple and, as it turned out, very... Read More

I have written a lot lately about Peter Doyle since he died a few months ago. His ashes were returned to Kiltegan, his mother’s home and a service was held in the village. I wasn’t able to attend the service but Ardal O’Hanlon and his wife Melanie did go and others including members of Peter’s... Read More

‘Do you want to go back? You can go back if you like’. ‘I don’t know what do you think?’ ‘You can do whatever you like’. ‘Is it better for you if we go back or if we stay as we are?’ ‘It doesn’t matter to me what you do. I am the finest’. ‘Ok... Read More

One thing more than anything that Peter wanted was to return to his home place. For him this was where his mother lived in Kiltegan Co. Wicklow, a small village in the south of the county.  Peter found out about his mother shortly after he fled for London in 1959 from the cruelty of forced... Read More

It is still hard to believe that our great friend and mentor, John Glynn is no longer with us, 2 years after his death. He has always seemed to walk beside us in all of Aisling’s endeavours as we continue in our work to return Irish exiles to their homeland. In recent weeks we have... Read More

One of our first ever Aisling clients, Peter Doyle has died aged 81. He was in many ways a symbol of what Aisling is all about. He came to London when he was only 16, having escaped the brutal ‘care’ of religious orders in Ireland. He had been sent by the St. John of God’s... Read More

Aisling has moved to a new address which is at: Resource for London, 356 Holloway Rd, London N7 6PA. Phone: 020 7697 4203. I am sure many of you will know the centre which has been a home to many voluntary and charitable organisations for many years. The place is famous for at least one... Read More

Our outreach worker, John is from Ballina in Co. Mayo and goes home every year for the Moy festival and although he hasn’t drank alcohol in nearly 40 years, while he is there he goes into the local pubs to see who else is around town. Last year he got talking to someone in a... Read More

A couple of days before we left London we went to clean the minibus and load up with water and soft drinks for the journey. Charlie would be making sandwiches on Friday night. At first John noticed the note placed under the windscreen wiper, then I noticed there was no wiper only a stump of... Read More

Aisling will be celebrating our 25th anniversary later this year. It is a great achievement to have kept going this long and not only are we planning to expand our service in 2019 we are as enthusiastic now as we were when we began in 1994. In the last quarter century we have worked with... Read More

Tommy, (AKA Nuts-and-Bolts) was missing and so his brother rang Aisling from Clare. He was worried about Tommy not having heard from him in years and so we set out to find him as best we could. The last connection we had with Tommy was at a sheltered housing scheme way out in the London... Read More

Driving around Ireland on our trip to Donegal this year we are constantly asked from lamp-posts, billboards and news media a very complex question with a stark either/or answer: Yes or No. Yes gives women the right to choose whether they should have the right to decide for themselves if they want to have a... Read More

You may have noticed from previous postings that John our alcohol outreach worker seems to find a connection with everyone he meets wherever we go because it seems everyone in the world originated in County Mayo which is the real cradle of civilisation (Mayopotamia perhaps?). But on this trip we witnessed something a bit more... Read More

Aisling can announce that our fundraising day out at the races at Royal Windsor Racecourse recently raised an amazing £70k. It was also a great day of fun and racing as well as one of the sunniest September days on record. We have a lot of people to thank for all of that and first... Read More

We are taking the reins once again and we are lining up for our fundraising day at the races at Windsor race course on 7 September. We are champing at the bit to get out and have fun and meet old friends once more so please come along for the racing. The poster says we... Read More

We began to raise money for Aisling with fundraising comedy benefit gigs in London over 20 years ago and Ardal O’Hanlon was one of the first acts we booked for it (immediately after he offered to be our patron). Fr. Ted had just come out on Channel 4 and most people still didn’t know what... Read More

I read somewhere that the early Christians used the letter X to identify themselves in early graffiti when they were members of an underground organisation outlawed by Rome and it is thought to refer to how Jesus was crucified in the shape of an X rather than a Cross (+). Citizen X, Mister X, The X Men and... Read More

Some of you may be going 'Great... more top comedy from the Aisling Project at their regular venue, the beautiful Union Chapel, handily located in Highbury, with easy access to all London transport links and what a line up of some of the best comedy talent from Ireland and Great Britain and a great cause... Read More

Ann Stephenson is running the Dublin marathon in support of the Aisling Project. She has a particular interest in Aisling and the work that we do. Here is why in her own words: At the moment I am training really hard for my first full marathon which I will run in Dublin on October 28th.... Read More