Some emotional homecomings on Aisling’s first visit to Leitrim, but for how long will its wild beauty remain unspoiled? By Alex McDonnell.Aisling will be 20 next March (2014) and for most of the last two decades we have known Frank well, first when he lived in Arlington House where he spent a lot of his… Read More
It must have felt a far cry from Camden Town and the cottage ahead chimney puffing smoke from it, a world away from Arlington House. But they came slowly up the path, some on crutches, some halting, to drink in the view and others chatting to new acquaintances. All moving towards the warmth of the… Read More
A memorable time was had by (almost) all on Aisling’s annual ‘dry’ trip to Waterford. Report by Alex McDonnell We had some of the hottest weather in Irish history on the first couple of days of our trip to Waterford this year. We arrived in sweltering heat and booked into the holiday homes high on… Read More
We had to work hard to get Patrick on this trip. He lives in a wet hostel in South London and although he has had sporadic contact with his family since he left he hasn’t been home for over 30 years. Since then many tragedies have occurred to his family including to his own children…. Read More
Tom had no luck in his life until he took alcohol out of it and cleaned up his act. Since he started his recovery with the help of the Kairos Community Trust things were definitely looking up. He had come with Aisling on a trip a few months back and had gone to visit his… Read More
This year John had arranged for Jim to stay with his sister in Cavan. On our way to the ferry we picked Jim up from his home in a quiet little street in Cricklewood, a nondescript terrace off the main road where all of the traffic in London seems to be ploughing through on its… Read More
We were less than an hour away from Holyhead and in good time to make the ferry. John and Mary and the gang in the other minibus were well behind and would be lucky to get to the ferry on time. These days we only have one minibus and had to borrow another one from… Read More
We are trying out a new format these days organising more sharply focussed trips which can deliver high impact solutions for our clients in smaller more cohesive groups (as it says here in the new Aisling business plan – ‘Working Together for On-going Solutions in the Next Irish Millennium’). Sorry, but I’ve just been to… Read More
We took a group of water-only boys to Waterford this year for the Tall Ships sailing race. The Waterboys were playing at the festival celebrating the sea and that’s a lot of water under the bridge. Interestingly for the first time since it was built we discovered that there may be a point to the… Read More
Kieran was adamant that he was not going home to see his family. He was only coming along for a holiday and that was that, even if it was 37 years since he was last home. We picked him up at his house in Cricklewood on the Friday evening on our way to the M1…. Read More
