Vanessa Monaghan Chair LILGBT,
Colum Mackey Chair Lewisham Irish Community Centre,
Kathleen Sheridan Lewisham Irish Community Centre
On Friday last, December 2nd, some of the committee had the pleasure of joining the good folks in Lewisham Irish Centre to celebrate their 30th anniversary.
If you were at our AGM in October, you would have heard us discuss that we wanted to give a gift, but something that was truly unique. We were delighted to be able to commission a local LGBTQ+ artist and our network treasurer, Yvonne Devine, to create that gift.
On Friday, it was a lovely honour to present Kathleen Sheridan, CEO and Colum Mackey, Chair of Lewisham Irish with the commissioned painting of the centre.
We’ve been fortunate to run events in Lewisham Irish Community Centre previously including some readings of Colm Clifford’s plays and the good folk there have always been very welcoming and generous to us.
It was great to see the ceol and craic taking place. It was a lovely night.
They also launched their ‘Lewisham Irish Life Stories’ book which our Chair, Vanessa, contributed to.
However, here’s the thing, a painting is a unique gorgeous gift. The centre has had a tough time since Covid and is now trying to ensure that they can provide a safe warm space with refreshments for the community every Monday morning. They are also trying to ensure that local community groups can avail of their space every Thursday from 1030am-1pm.
As we all know, it’s getting colder and heating costs are soaring. The Lewisham Irish Centre is a real proper community centre and they do amazing work. The smiles on the faces of the older Irish community there last Friday evening said it all. They were looked after and they were amongst friends. As someone said on Twitter ‘Community is Unity’.
We’re all on the way to being ‘Older Irish’ here in London and it is really important that Lewisham not only can provide for people this winter but it will also be there for future elders.
If you can support or sponsor the centre, they’ve set up a Just Giving page. I know they will be extremely grateful.
If you can’t see the above tweets, the direct link is here.
London Irish LGBT Network 