Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am thankful for the opportunity to raise this issue. Coventry was once the most Irish city in England and in the early 1960s, there were 20,000 Irish-born people living in Coventry. The industries there attracted Irish people who worked in factories, on the buses and in hospitals. They built the ring road, housing estates and the new cathedral. The Irish community flourished. People came together in clubs, trade unions, voluntary organisations and in their churches. They represented their people and others on the city council and went to areas such as Spon End, Coundon, Radford, Jordan and Gosford Street.

In the 1950s, for example, 650 Irish people used to attend the Banba Club on an average Saturday night. Others went to church clubs or to pubs such as St. Brendan's or the Kerryman, the Bricklayers Arms, the Hand and Heart, or the Four Provinces. As a whole, the Irish in Britain returned €3 billion in remittances between 1939 and 1969 to families who were left behind when they were forced to emigrate from here.

Their stories were celebrated by Tom Murphy in one of his plays and by John B. Keane. It produced artists such as Hazel O'Connor and Julianne Regan. Nowadays, the 1950s generation are ageing but their legacy remains. The Coventry Irish Centre performs outstanding work for their community out of Eaton House, which is near the railway station. Great credit is due to people such as Simon McCarthy, Caroline Brogan, Gráinne Fellowes, Liz Flannelly, Manisha O'Malley and Margaret Campbell. They help approximately 1,000 people per year by befriending, health outreach, with welfare advice and with their passports.

As the Minister of State is probably aware, the emigrant support scheme assists with the courses and funds the Coventry Irish Centre but does not help to secure any long-term premises or a secure home. The Coventry Irish Centre has had to move five times during the past ten years. The Coventry Irish Centre is one of three Irish survivor specialist services in England. It meets survivors who by now have a long-term and positive connection with the charity. They gain mutual support by being part of a group with a unique history and experience and who were wronged by this State. In Coventry, they help survivors from all over the midlands. There are two other English-based survivor services. One operates from the London Irish Centre, Camden Square, London, and the other is Irish Community Care and it deals with people in Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester. Those two centres have their own private offices where they meet with survivors and host social events. They help them with housing and other issues.

The Coventry Irish Centre does not have any secure or long-term premises. Like the other centres, it helps survivors to apply for the mother and baby home scheme, the Magdalen laundries scheme, and offer social supports and networks such as outings and lunch clubs, which are vital for people and for those survivors, in particular. We owe the Irish people in Britain more than this and the temporary accommodation the Coventry Irish Centre has. I ask the Government to consider additional support for the midlands Irish survivors service, which have helped more than 500 survivors in total and to consider funding a long-term premises where they can meet in private and are not mixed with everyone else. They need extra attention and care. I am asking at a time when there is an awful lot of money in this country that we give something back to those communities and to those Irish people in Britain who need it most.

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