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

Brexit is throwing some unexpected curve balls our way. How many of the voters on the leave side thought about the ructions that may ensue when borders are reintroduced or when friends and family members are no longer welcome in Britain? This is a real possibility yet I know of many Irish people here in... Read More

The floor collapsed in the toilet of our office here in Agar Tower. I guess it was the weight of the solid gold bog seat like the one that Trump talks out of. The landlord eventually had a look and found dry rot running through to the other end of the office and that obviously... Read More

When I was working in Arlington House and was first putting together the Aisling Project in 1994 I was approached by Jim McCool who was working as a researcher at the University of North London (now London Met). Jim was from Armagh and had been a student on the groundbreaking Irish Studies Course. He knew... Read More

Aisling continues to provide support for up to 200 clients during the pandemic. In line with government guidance we work as best we can remotely from home when we are able. Whilst most of our clients are coping with remote contact sometimes we need to do face to face contacts to support clients with hospital... Read More

Michael Hogan was buried recently at the Islington Crematorium in East Finchley. Michael died a few months ago at the beginning of the Corona virus alert but he turned out not to have had the virus. He was in University College hospital for a long time and died there. Things are a bit mixed up... 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

Aisling is continuing to work through the virus emergency hoping, like everyone else that life will get back to normal soon. By maintaining contact through this period with as many of our clients as possible we are determined to continue with our service and be sure that when normal service resumes we can pick up... Read More

During the first two weeks of “lockdown” due to Covid-19 Aisling has scaled down the usual face-to-face outreach visits and in line with government guidance is working remotely from home. The over-riding concern of Aisling is the welfare of our clients all of whom are vulnerable in some way and many were isolated and alone... 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

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

Our good friends at Green Curtain Theatre are producing a small theatre tour of London Irish venues. This is a great chance to see original theatre from experienced performers and is definitely not to be missed.

The Chapel is one of London’s best music venues and though it may not be as well known for comedy it is getting very popular with comedy promoters because of the thrill of swearing and saying risky stuff from the pulpit of a working church. On Monday 27th November we had a stellar line up... Read More