A CHARITY supporting long-term Irish emigrants in London claims 99 per cent of their clients wish to be buried back in their homeland following their death.
Irish Chaplaincy CEO Paul Raymond has spoken about how the charity helps the most vulnerable in the community as the organisation approaches its 70th anniversary.
“We address poverty in all its forms,” he said.
“So practical poverty, emotional poverty and spiritual poverty, you can’t separate the three; it is all interlinked.”
The Irish Chaplaincy was established in 1957 following a major wave of Irish emigration to Britain after the Second World War.
Irish bishops sent priests to cities including London, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool to support emigrants arriving in Britain.
A volunteer with a member of their community (Photo by Irish Chaplaincy)Today the charity continues that work through outreach services, end-of-life care and community support.
Mr Raymond, originally from Liverpool but with strong Irish roots in Wexford and Limerick, joined the organisation in 2009 to manage its seniors' project.
“I always had a big heart for older people, which grew from my upbringing; it grew from my family, and it grew from my faith,” he said.
He said his Catholic upbringing and experiences growing up in Liverpool strongly shaped his commitment to helping others.
“Liverpool, when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s, was quite deprived,” he said.
“So social justice was quite inspiring for me and seeing people around me take action.”
The charity is preparing to celebrate its 70th anniversary next year and currently supports around 150 older Irish people through staff and volunteers, with much of the work focused on outreach.
“So we go where people are; some people are isolated or housebound," he explained.
Irish Chaplaincy is based in Camden but helps all over London (Photo by Irish Chaplaincy)The charity also works extensively in care homes and hospices.
“We’ve seen that the statistics for loneliness are almost twice as high in care homes, so we do a lot of work there,” he said.
“Even today I was speaking to a care home in Islington who really welcomed our services, because they had 60 residents, but 16 of them were Irish.”
Mr Raymond said maintaining cultural and spiritual connections remains hugely important for many older emigrants, even after decades away from Ireland.
“It’s just about making sure that people's end of life and final years are with dignity and being connected to the culture that is so important to them,” he said.
“This is still true for people who would have left Ireland 60 years ago.”
He added that spirituality can mean different things to different people.
“There is a recognition that even if people now might express faith in a different way, we’re comfortable with that,” he said.
“For some people it might be God, for some people it might be nature, for some it might be music.”
They support over 150 older Irish people across the city (Photo by Irish Chaplaincy)But he said faith often remains deeply tied to who they are.
“Especially for some of the older Irish, it is very hard to separate their faith from their personal identity because it is so embedded.”
Mr Raymond said some of the most emotional work carried out by the charity comes during people’s final days.
“During COVID we lost a lot of people, and we arranged a lot of funerals, and sometimes we were the only mourners there,” he recalled.
One story that remains with him involved an Irish man who came to Britain at 12 years old after he had lost his mother, but he still wished to be laid to rest back in Ireland.
“We contacted the cemetery where his mother was buried, and we arranged a plot next to his mother, and those were his final wishes.”
Mr Raymond said the desire to return home remains powerful among older emigrants.
“About 99.9% of the people we help actually want to be buried back home in Ireland,” he said.
“That connection never leaves you.”
He also stressed the importance of rebuilding community ties for older Irish people whose social circles may have faded over time.
“As times go on communities dissipate, people move or they die, and those kinds of connections fragment.”
“So a crucial role for us at Irish Chaplaincy is to help rebuild those networks and that connection."
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