Provided by the author(s) and University College Dublin Library in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title Welcoming the Stranger, Irish Emigrant Welfare in Britain since 1957 Authors(s) Kennedy, Patricia Publication date 2015-03-30 Publisher Irish Academic Press Link to online version http://irishacademicpress.ie/product/welcoming-the-stranger-irish-migrant-welfare-in-britain-since-1957/ Item record/more information http://hdl.handle.net/10197/8744 Downloaded 2021-09-30T10:29:33Z The UCD community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters! (@ucd_oa) © Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. WELCOMING THE STRANGER WELCOMING THE STRANGER IRISH MIGRANT WELFARE IN BRITAIN SINCE 1957 Patricia Kennedy Irish Academic Press First published in 2015 by Irish Academic Press 8 Chapel Lane Sallins Co. Kildare Ireland www.iap.ie © 2015 Patricia Kennedy British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data An entry can be found on request ISBN: 978 0 7165 3293 4 (Paper) ISBN: 978 0 7165 3294 1 (Cloth) ISBN: 978 0 7165 3295 8 (PDF) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data An entry can be found on request All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. Printed in Ireland by SPRINT-print Ltd Contents Foreword vi Acknowledgements ix List of Plates xi Introduction 1 Chapter 1 Emigration from Ireland to Britain—The Start of the Journey 13 Chapter 2 The Church and Migration: Universal and Local 42 Chapter 3 Origins of the Irish Emigrant Chaplaincy 59 Chapter 4 Ministering to Labourers and Hotel Workers 74 Chapter 5 Reaching out around Britain 89 Chapter 6 Influencing Housing Policy in Britain 112 Chapter 7 Expansion and Consolidation 126 Chapter 8 The Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas (ICPO) 158 Chapter 9 The Task Force on Emigration 189 Chapter 10 From 2007 Onwards 204 Afterword 233 Bibliography 240 Index 246 v Foreword It is a pleasure for me to introduce Patricia Kennedy’s work entitled Welcoming the Stranger: Irish Migrant Welfare in Britain since 1957, which examines the rich history of the Irish Emigrant Chaplaincy to Britain. This is particularly the case as the author is a member of the Kerry Women Writers group, a group which I had the pleasure of launching in March 2014. The legacy of Irish emigration to Britain is immense. Britain has been the largest area of Irish emigrant settlement since the 1940s and the Irish Diaspora in Britain today is unique, not only in terms of its size but also its diversity. Our community in Britain encompasses every demographic and is represented in every walk of life. The Irish community, both Irish-born and of Irish descent, has made distinctive, creative contributions to virtually every aspect of British society, including business, infrastructure, politics, public service, the arts, media, community, entertainment and sport. There is virtually no aspect of British civic or political life that has not been enriched by contributions from the Irish community. Just one example of the contribution of Irish emigrants to Britain is that of the experience of the construction industry, which was the largest single employer of Irish male migrant labour during the waves of emigration in the 1950s and 1980s. That tradition of Irish construction work goes back at least as far as the building of the canals and railways, the reconstruction of Britain after the war, through to the construction, in more recent times, of the Channel Tunnel and the skyscrapers of the City. Monuments to the labour of Irish workers and construction companies dot the landscape in Britain today. vi Foreword In the same era, the contribution of the Irish community to other sectors, including agriculture, teaching and nursing is also widely recognised. This was acknowledged by President Higgins during his recent historic State Visit, where he witnessed the continuing contribution of Irish nurses and doctors to British medicine during his visit to University College Hospital in London. The everyday stories of Irish people and their families making their homes and lives in Britain paved the way for the recent high points in relationships between these islands, including the 2014 State Visit. However behind the many positive experiences of Irish emigrants who made their home in Britain was a more hidden story of marginalisation, regret and loneliness. For many Irish the experience of migration in Britain was an isolating one. Organisations such as the Irish Emigrant Chaplaincy provided an invaluable service in supporting the most vulnerable of Irish emigrants. Indeed the Chaplaincy was itself a pioneer in developing the model of welfare organisations catering to Irish emigrants in Britain. It also led the way in offering support and guidance to some of the historically most marginalised and disadvantaged of the Irish abroad, Irish Travellers and those who find themselves imprisoned in Britain and their families. Since its foundation in 1957 Irish emigrants over the decades found a comforting and familiar voice in the Chaplaincy which sought to bridge the void between the expectation and the reality of emigration. Many Irish emigrants in Britain continue to face very challenging circumstances. Lack of family networks and increasing isolation continue to be problems for some of the elderly Irish. Those in the 1950s wave of migration have now reached retirement age and within this group there are significant numbers of elderly Irish in vulnerable situations. Issues of concern include access to housing and welfare benefits, problems of substance misuse and the evolving needs of an ageing community. The Government of Ireland is acutely aware of its duty to support both Irish emigrants and their descendents who left Ireland in recent generations. Since the establishment of the Irish Abroad Unit in the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2004, Irish organisations in Britain, including the Irish Chaplaincy, have received grant funding of over £60 million. vii Welcoming the Stranger The further enhancement of our connection to our community in Britain remains central to Government policy. As the first Minister for Diaspora Affairs, the establishment of my position is a tangible demonstration of the Irish Government’s deep commitment to the Irish community abroad. Ireland’s greatest resource has always been our people and the valuable contribution that our community abroad has made to Ireland throughout our history is widely acknowledged and respected by the Government and the people of Ireland. I would like to congratulate Patricia once again on this wonderful history of the Irish Chaplaincy which is an extremely important contribution to the rich narrative of Irish emigration to Britain. In particular it is a valuable record of the lives of the more invisible members of our community in Britain and the often unsung heroes who sought to support and sustain them. The Chaplaincy has been a patient, committed and empathetic voice for the voiceless Irish and its support has made a huge impact in many lives – go raibh mile maithagaibh go léir. Mr Jimmy Deenihan T.D. Minister for Diaspora Affairs of Ireland January 2015 viii Acknowledgements Writing this book was an incredible journey, which began in 2007 when I was commissioned by the Irish Episcopal Commission for Emigrants (IECE) to research the history of the first fifty years of the Irish Emigrant Chaplaincy Scheme to Britain. The project was the brainchild of Fr Alan Hilliard, then Secretary to the IECE, who recognised the importance of recording the pioneering work of the men and women who worked with and on behalf of Irish emigrants to Britain. I am very grateful to Alan for his generosity and thoughtfulness, for always being available to answer my many questions and for his particular expertise on Church teaching on migration. In the intervening years I have been privileged to meet a large number of very interesting people who have taught me so much about social justice, many of whom I now call friends. I would like to thank the Chaplaincy personnel past and present, in both Maynooth and London, who gave me their time, answered my many questions and made their archives available to me, as did the many service users and policy makers who shared their insights with me. I would like to thank, in particular, Fr Bobby Gilmore (SSC), Fr Paul Byrne (OMI) and Bishop Eamonn Casey who were attached to the Chaplaincy for decades and were extremely generous with their stories, insights, personal archives and, most importantly, their wisdom. There were many times when we laughed and cried together. A special thank you must go to Srs Attracta Heneghan, Veronica Gannon and Gretta Cummins with whom I spent a memorable day in Galway. I would like to thank Fr Tom McCabe (OMI), Ms Niamh Collins, Columban Missionary Society Archivist, and Ms Noelle Dowling, Dublin Diocesan Archivist for their generosity. ix Welcoming the Stranger I would like to thank my colleagues at the School of Applied Social Science in University College Dublin (UCD) for their support and encouragement. I am particularly grateful to my friend, Dr Nessa Winston, for reading an early draft and sharing with me her expertise on Irish emigration to Britain and my friend, Dr Marie Keenan, who was always there to explain the intricacies of the Catholic Church. I would also like to thank Professor Bryan Fanning for his comments on an early draft. I would like to thank Karen McHugh who has inspired me with her undying commitment to migrants since we first shared an office in the Brent Irish Advisory Service in London in 1990.