ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRELAND FUND OF GREAT BRITAIN
- Session: 2013-14
- Date tabled: 05.06.2013
- Primary sponsor:
- Sponsors:
That this House notes that 21 June 2013 marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Ireland Fund of Great Britain by Sir Tony O'Reilly and Dan Rooney, now the US Ambassador to Ireland; recalls that at the time of the Fund's launch in 1988, many thousands of Irishmen and women had left Ireland to come to Great Britain to avoid the troubles and to seek an alternative to economic decline and high unemployment; welcomes the support given by the Fund over the last 25 years for projects involving peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland as well as health, heritage, education and welfare; is reminded that in 2007 the Fund's Patron, Peter Sutherland and President Mary McAleese launched the Forgotten Irish campaign to raise awareness of and financial support for the, by then, ageing Irish diaspora resident in Great Britain many of whom, after a lifetime of hard work, were living in lonely poverty without the support of family or friends; and congratulates the Fund on its continuing work to aid and assist those elderly Irish in Great Britain who find themselves in greatest need.