2011 Grant Round
The Ireland Fund has awarded the following grants so far this year
£1425 to Haringey Irish Pensioners
This dynamic group of Irish pensioners was established almost 20 years ago.
They have over two hundred elderly members, many of whom and vulnerable and suffer from loneliness. This grant will be used to fund a special lunch at St Patrick's Day and Christmas and some outings to the seaside in the summertime
£7000 to Irish Community Services (formerly Irish in Greenwich)
The Irish in Greenwich was created in 1984, they work in 4 east London boroughs and provide elder outreach services, carers support services with a volunteer respite project and a Happy Days cafe for clients with Dementia and their carers. As part of the elders project they have 5 really popular Irish Event Lunch Clubs, this grant will provide the start up costs for the 6th in Bromley, where there are currently no other specific projects for elderly Irish people.
£2600 to St Michael's Irish Centre
This centre was established in 1999, they offer a wide variety of cultural activities throughout the week for the young and old 
including dancing lessons, music lessons tea dances and lunch clubs. This grant will be used to extend their existing information and advice service to elderly Irish in Liverpool, it will allow them to offer a drop in centre.
St John Bosco Youth Club
This youth club was founded in 1969 in a deprived area of Tower Hamlets. They run two afterschool clubs and take care of around 100 children. This grant of £1000 will be used for hall hire for one evening per week for a year.
£7000 to the Irish Elderly Advice Network
The Elderly Advice Network was set up in 1994 to address poverty, isolation and distress amongst the elderly Irish community. These issues are addressed by offering client based advice and support. This grant of £7000 will be used to reach out to elderly and vulnerable Irish in East London where there is currently a lack of Irish sevices. This will be done through newsletters and home visits.
Sean Henderson from the Ireland Fund travelled to the new service in East London to present the cheque.
£7000 to Irish Women's Survivors Support Network
The Irish Women Survivors Support Network was created to help female survivors of institutional abuse, who now live in the UK. The group seeks to empower these women through information and the support of other women who have had similar experiences.
This grant of £7000 will be used for representitives to travel to Ireland to meet with officals and ministers, and for meetings in the UK to relay the outcome of these meetings to the women. The grant will also fund the women's annual day out to Brighton. IFGB Co-Chair Ruth McCarthy travelled to North London to present the cheque.
£2000 to London Irish Pensioners Choir
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 musicians 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"!
£3500 to Birchfield Residents Action Group
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.
£7000 to Irish Support and Advice Service, Hammersmith
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.Ireland Fund Trustee Seamus McGarry presents the cheque to ISAS Chair Dermot Murphy and Manager Mike McGing
£4000 Coventry Irish Society, Coventry
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.