A few years back I took a call from the Foleys, an Irish family in north London. Little did I know then that it would lead to an exciting new resource for the London-Irish community
I work as director of arts at the London Irish Centre (LIC), a big, busy Irish community centre in Camden Town, where I oversee a diverse programme of Irish arts and community events. We've been here for 60 years, supporting the Irish community and culture through a wide mix of projects.
A lot of people know us for our longstanding work looking after vulnerable Irish in London, mainly the elderly, the homeless and disadvantaged. But alongside this is an Irish events programme which hosts over 30,000 people per year. It is a beautiful model of Irish community, culture and care. Recently, TV star Dermot O’Leary has come on board as our charity patron.
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But back to the Foleys. When my office took that call, we were asked if the Centre would like to receive a donation of books from the family of the recently-deceased Christopher Foley, who had built up a wonderful collection of Irish books. He had insisted in his later days that they would not be sold on after his passing. With no fixed plans, but an ongoing receptiveness to quality Irish culture, we said yes.
The family turned up for a very emotional handover of their father’s special collection. We made space available and gratefully received the donation. At this point I was considering a small reading room to host the scores of academic and journalistic enquiries the LIC receives every year.
Soon after, the then Labour TD Michael McCarthy and some of his team were on one of the regular ministerial visits we host. On a tour of the building, we showed and shared our plans for the books.
Inspired and excited by the project, the Irish team returned to Dublin and put out a call to every TD, senator and publishing house in Ireland to donate books to this new Irish library in London.
Always open to partnerships and innovation, we watched and listened with excitement, gratitude (and some apprehension!) as the books gathered in Dublin in their tens, then hundreds, then thousands.
"Interleaf Technology will donate cataloguing software"… "An Post will bring 6 tonnes of books over for free"… "leading Irish artists are donating signed works". This thing was snowballing in the most wonderful way.
Soon after, myself and David Barlow, who was chief executive of the LIC at the time, were invited to Leinster House for a presentation and reception. We proudly presented the work of the LIC to an Oireachtas Committee, and then went to an impressive reception with hundreds of politicians, publishers and artists, all to the sounds of the Oireachtas Choir. The engagement with and support for this new feature on the international Irish arts landscape was tangible.
Returning to Camden, we set the wheels in motion to make sure we delivered on the belief and expectation of everyone who had got behind the project.
The first challenge was to find a home for this large collection. Luckily, this hunt coincided with us taking back a historic part of our building from a commercial tenant. The space, a room just off The Kennedy Hall, was prime for cultural regeneration.
We then needed the people. Our arts team worked with our very successful volunteering project to create and recruit for a new “library volunteer” role. Over two phases, we recruited and inducted a team of ten people, one of them an ex-librarian, who quickly rolled up their sleeves. This team have shown tireless energy for and commitment to the project. It couldn’t have happened without them.
Obviously, there would be expense, for shelving, IT and decorations. Once we costed the project, we approached a number of successful Irish business people in London. We were thrilled when a small philanthropic donation came in to get us to launch point.
This spirit of "meitheal" - members of a community (the Irish in London in this case) helping fellow members - has long been at the heart of our work. The way in which our donors, volunteers, and pro-bono supporters contribute to our work is inspiring and essential.
The room was painted, the shelves put in, volunteers trained on the cataloguing system and software, and the books were unboxed, sorted and labelled.
On Monday evening, hundreds of the Irish community in London including Irish Amabssador Dan Mulhall, a great supporter of Irish culture in the city Michael McCarthy, and Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó'Fearghaíl gathered to officially open the library.
Of course the Foleys were there too, proud, excited and emotional to see their father’s legacy bring life and culture to the walls of the LIC. They told stories of their father’s love for Ireland, of the notes and annotations in his books (which we later find), and how wonderful it is to see a new library open in the context of closures across Britain.
There was a palpable buzz of community, culture and craic in the room. People fingered through 10,000 titles of Irish interest, talked about books they read in school, looked for their favourite poem or the town they left behind. Kids tried to read the Irish language books, historians explored the detail, and four generations of Irish people in London met each other in their shared culture.
This is what the work of London Irish Centre is about; Irish community, culture and care. Find out for yourself: drop us an email or call us to book in your visit. We’ll get the kettle on, and one of our volunteers will be ready to give you a tour. I’m sure Chris Foley would be pleased.
