THE AISLING PROJECT
Alex McDonnell, Founder and Coordinator, The Aisling Project
Back in 1992 I saw a programme on the telly about Arlington House. It was one
wild place full of character and characters. Two years later I found myself working
there and spending my days with these mad Irish men and realised that they were as
varied and as interesting a group of people anyone could wish to meet. They fitted
into no easy stereotype, some were pretty rough and some drank more than was
good for them, others were poets, artists and villains. They came from all walks of
life but they all had experienced some mishap or tragedy in their past that brought
them to live in this huge old homeless men’s hostel. They weren’t all Irish of course,
only about half of them but the Irish were always very noticeable. Patrick Kavanagh
lived in Arlington House in the 30’s and he talked of finding solace hearing the soft
voices of West of Ireland men in the long corridors.
As fascinating as the place was, it was also distressing to find that many of these
men had not been back to their homeland in years, sometimes since the day they
left. Myself, John Glynn, Joe McGarry and later on Charlie Conquest set out to do
something about it. Basically what we did was bundle a load of long-term emigrant
men and women into a mini-bus and headed off to Kerry for a week. This opened
up a world of possibilities for those people many of whom were hiding away, having
failed in their mission as economic migrants to find the pot of gold in London.
Fearful of getting the cold shoulder they invariably found the open arms of their
friends and family members who wondered what had befallen them. Since those
early days Aisling has developed into a full-time project organising five rehabilitative
holidays every year for around 80 Irish men and women.
Looking at Cian’s paintings I can see the depth of character and the ravages of
emigration in these faces and feel that this is a true likeness of the emigrant Irish
and the soul of Aisling.