Projects

2010 and 2011 Grant Round


2011 Grant Round

London Irish Pensioners Choir - £2000

The London Irish Pensioners Choir was established in 2004, it has gone from strength to strength and now has over 40 committed members. Members of the Choir travel from all over the South East to take part and the choir performs all over London and was recently featured in BBC 1's "Songs of Praise". They have recently launched a CD of their material - "Songs of Love and Emigration".

The IFGB grant will be used to cover travel to performances and the hire of muscians to support the Choir. IFGB Executive Director Sheila Bailey visited the Choir in Camden to present the cheque and was treated to a rendition of "My Donegal"!

Birchfield Residents Action Group - £3500

Birchfield Residents Action Group will use this grant for their Allotment Sanctuary project.  An allotment has been secured for lonely Irish men, it will become a meeting place where many of them can use their skills and perhaps develop new ones.  There will also be a workshop area where skills can be practiced and an area for talking and playing cards.

National research shows that at least 400,000 older men are lonely, Birchfield Residents Group have found that many older men find it difficult to make friends late in life and can be put off from joining social groups for older people as they tend to be dominated by older women. The grant from the IFGB will allow the project to continue for at least one year.  IFGB Executive Director Sheila Bailey travelled to Birmingham to present the cheque.

Irish Support and Advice Service, Hammersmith - £7000

The grant will enable ISAS to provide a Pensioners Worker, who will ensure that Irish pensioners receive all benefits and advice, such as Disability Living Allowance, housing advice and pensions advice that they are entitled to.  Over 1000 people will be helped each month.  The IFGB is proud to support the vital work of the Irish Support and Advice Service. The Ireland Fund of Great Britain Trustee Seamus McGarry presents the cheque to ISAS Chair Dermot Murphy and Manager Mike McGing

Coventry Irish Society, Coventry - £4000 

Coventry Irish Society will use this grant for their special project to support Survivors of institutional abuse.  This project provides information and advice to Survivors and this funding will allow this support to continue for the foreseeable future.  Ireland Fund Executive Director Sheila Bailey presents the cheque to Outreach Worker Simon McCarthy and some Survivors of Institutional abuse who are helped by the Coventry project.

2010 Grant Round

In the 2009 - 2010 grant round the IFGB awarded over £260,000 to community organisations across Great Britain. 

Scotland

  • Harps Community Project – Glasgow £5000

North East of England 

  • Tyneside Irish Centre - £5000

North West of England 

  • Bolton Irish Community Association - £2,250
  • Irish Community Care Manchester - £9,919
  • Irish Community Care Merseyside - £9,995
  • St Michael's Irish Centre – Liverpool - £7,614

Yorkshire and Humberside

  • Irish Arts Foundation – Leeds - £6,130
  • Leeds Irish Health and Homes - £10,000

West Midlands

  • Coventry Irish Society - £10,000
  • Irish Welfare and Information Centre – Birmingham - £6,988
  • Sandwell Irish Society – Birmingham - £5,520

East Anglia

  • Irish Network Stevenage - £1000
  • Luton Irish Forum - £7,563

East Midlands

  • Northampton Irish Support Group - £7,216
  • The Irish Senior Citizen Group – Leicester - £2,080
  • The Emerald Centre – Leicester - £5,350

Greater London

  • Acton Homeless Concern - £10,000
  • Age Concern Hillingdon - £5,438
  • Aisling Return to Ireland Project - £10,000
  • Central and Cecil (Cara) - £5,790
  • Cricklewood Homeless Concern - £10,000
  • Emerald Circle Club - £1,000
  • Kilburn Irish Pensioners - £1,000
  • Haringey Irish Centre - £9,000
  • Haringey Irish Pensioners Association - £2,425
  • Immigrant Counselling & Psychotherapy - £7,000
  • Irish Elders Network – £3,600
  • Irish Elderly Advice Network - £6,393
  • Irish Cultural Centre - £4,630
  • Irish in Greenwich - £6,957
  • London Irish Pensioners Choir - £1,780
  • Lewisham Irish Community Centre - £7,430
  • London Irish Survivors Support Group Network - £7,720
  • Solace Women's Aid - £10,000
  • Southwark Irish Pensioners Project - £4,500
  • St. John Bosco Club - £2,000
  • Tara Irish Pensioners - £1,500
  • The Irish Chaplaincy in Britain - £2,000
  • The Irish Charitable Trust - £10,000
  • West Hampstead Women's Group - £5,797

South East of England

  • Basingstoke Irish Society - £2,500
  • Eastleigh & District Irish Society - £2,662
  • Milton Keynes Irish Welfare Support group - £7,000
  • Reading Irish Society - £5,000
  • The Hibernian Society - £7,000