User:IrishinBritain

Federation of Irish Societies

The Federation of Irish Societies (FIS) is the only national representative body for Irish cultural and community organisations in Britain. We have more than 150 members across Britain, which include arts and sports organisations, Irish clubs and community centres, and agencies that meet the health and social care needs of the most vulnerable in our community. FIS also facilitate a number of regional Irish business and social networks.

History

Irish societies in Britain have a long history as a source of support and a link to the community for homesick migrants who had crossed the Irish Sea in search of work. During the postwar boom years in the 1950s and 60s, Irish people flocked to Britain seeking work. But while their labour was welcomed, these new immigrants also faced entrenched racism. For those seeking accommodation in a strange city, signs for rooms to let that warned “No Irish, no blacks, no dogs” spelled out the cold prejudice that led new migrants to seek out the company of their fellow Irish in clubs and societies.

As Irish societies proliferated across the country, a need for a cohesive network and a single representative voice emerged, especially at a time when anti-Irish sentiment was on the increase during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. In 1973 two loose federations – based in Portsmouth, Liverpool and Leeds – decided to amalgamate into a single national body that would support Irish centres across the country.

With the support of the newly launched Irish Post newspaper, the federation helped local groups develop their self-confidence – not of emigrants always looking back to the old country but of a vibrant community looking to the future.

The Troubles

The 1970s and 80s were a difficult time to be Irish in Britain. Bloody Sunday, IRA attacks in England – such as the bombs in Guildford, Birmingham and Brighton – and the suspension of civil rights and the use of internment in Northern Ireland left many in the community feeling shocked and vulnerable. One of the federation’s early roles was to provide the UK’s increasingly isolated Irish community with a voice.

Ten years after its formation, FIS made a change to its constitution to allow its officers to submit ideas to the New Ireland Forum seeking alternatives to conflict. It also called for the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act, which conferred emergency powers to the police, to be repealed.

Policy

Influencing policy

The federation has worked to ensure that Irish emigrants in Britain are not forgotten by policy-makers. It began meeting with the Irish government in 1983 to discuss issues facing this community – especially important at a time when many Irish people were being unfairly interned in the UK. It continues to hold these meetings annually as well as its quarterly meetings with the Irish ambassador. It also maintains contact with British government officials, including MPs and TDs on the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly and has been represented on the Home Office Race Relations Forum.

Recognition

A key issue for the community was the introduction of an ethnic Irish category in the last census. The federation campaigned actively for this and succeeded in having it included in the 2001 census. In recent years FIS has produced high-quality research highlighting the causes of need amongst the disadvantaged in our community, such as mental health problems and dementia, high levels of cancer and substance misuse. We have also developed close links with a number of key British cultural institutions such as the Arts Council, Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England.

Issues

Health

Identity, invisibility and infirmity: health issues affecting the Irish in Britain

They are victims of their own success, you could say: as the oldest and most established migrant group in Britain, they blend in only too well; unlike many other newcomers, they tend to be fair-skinned and speaking English. So it can come as a surprise even to health professionals to learn that the Irish in Britain are a distinct ethnic group with needs as particular as those of far more recently arrived communities.

Irish men and women in Britain are more likely to report their health as being 'not good' than their British counterparts, in all age groups. This fits with data from academic studies over two decades showing high mortality from all causes among Irish men and women. This is not adequately explained by socio-economic, behavioural or lifestyle factors, or by the age of the community. Premature mortality is related to coronary heart disease, stroke, cancers, respiratory disorders, accidents and injuries. And in contrast to the normal pattern for migrants, this ill health extends to the second and third generations of Irish people in Britain.

Cultural identity and its denial are at the heart of this apparent process of transmission, or inheritance, for the invisible men and women of the modern Britain’s multicultural matrix. Many first-generation Irish people who faced discrimination and racism, and maintained a low profile during the years of the Troubles, actively encouraged their children to present themselves as English. But this repression of self can exact a terrible price on people’s mental health and wellbeing.

On top of this, the Irish are the oldest migrant community in Britain not only historically but also literally: during the Celtic Tiger years, Ireland became, for the first time, more popular as a destination than it was a jumping-off point; Ryanair, rather than road-building abroad, became the way for young Irish people to explore the world. Meanwhile, however, the Irish in Britain got older, and more and more of them began, inevitably, to suffer from dementia. Some also fell prey to the illnesses that come from over-reliance on the readymade community of the pub.

There are the issues everyone knows about: the scandal of institutional child abuse over many decades in Ireland, and the inter-generational fallout from this in the Irish diaspora; and the deprivation and discrimination affecting the Irish Traveller community, which have fuelled mortality and morbidity rates rarely seen outside the developing world. And then there are those no one has heard of: the raised incidence of coeliac disease, and the heightened vulnerability of Irish people to heamochromatosis, a potentially fatal condition, sometimes misdiagnosed as cirrhosis, in which the body absorbs too much iron.

Health professionals need to be aware of the importance of capturing ethnicity when completing health forms, and of the significance for health of cultural identity, for second and third generations – no matter how Irish they are, no matter how invisible.

Culture

Festivals and parades There are dozens of Irish festivals and parades in Britain every year promoting all aspects of Irish culture including music, dance, theatre, comedy, literature and food. Major festivals held over several weeks include the Return to Camden Town festival of traditional Irish music and dance, the Liverpool Irish festival, the Leeds Gathering, the Fleadh in Finsbury Park, Irish History Month and the Tyneside Irish festival. One-day events in the summer include Irish festivals in Crawley, Southwark and Halifax. Larger St Patrick’s Day parades are usually held the Sunday before March 15 in London, Birmingham and Manchester, each attracting some 100,000 spectators every year.

FIS works with these organisations to help them improve the way their event-management skills, marketing, promotions, funding and sponsorship, and helping them develop partnerships and sustainability.

Parades development project FIS is working with the UK Centre for Carnival Arts to use the skills of carnival artists to improve the animation and visual spectacle of our parades. Community groups and schools will work alongside carnival artists to create colourful costumes and amazing structures based around Irish themes.

Culture, health and wellbeing FIS are working with partner organisations to develop a programme of events that demonstrate the links between arts and culture activities and the health and wellbeing of members of the community.

Throughout the 1980s and early 90s, the federation’s cultural arm was extremely active. Events included the organisation of a tour of Britain in 1981 by Siamsa Tíre, the National Folk Theatre of Ireland, Siamsa Cois Uisce - a three-week Irish festival at the Watermans Art Centre in London in 1985 and a week-long festival of drama in Coventry in 1985. Two further festivals were organised at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith in 1989 and 1990.

Funding for Irish culture in Britain Our research shows that funding for Irish artists and cultural organisations in Britain by Arts Council England and other National Lottery distributors such as Sport England and the Heritage Lottery providers is significantly lower than that provided to other diaspora communities. FIS has highlighted these issues and is working with relevant agencies towards greater equity in funding distribution.

Traditional Irish music tuition Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann is the largest group involved in the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music in the world. A non-profit cultural movement with hundreds of local branches globally, it has been teaching and promoting Irish music since 1951.

Irish artists working in Britain FIS has compiled a database of artists working in various genres including bands, theatre companies, storytellers and visual artists and is developing a network for Irish artists in Britain.

Irish cultural centres

World Irish Cultural Centre

A major new cultural centre which aims to act as a world centre for the Irish diaspora and as an international platform for Irish artists is due to open in Manchester in the spring of 2012. The centre will include a museum, performing arts space, gallery, education rooms, community hall, outside performance spaces, sporting facilities, restaurant and bars.

Hammersmith Irish Cultural centre

The Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith was established in 1995 and is acclaimed for providing one of the most exciting and adventurous weekly artistic programmes in the UK -– featuring Ireland’s best traditional and contemporary musicians, an Irish film programme, Irish literary events (annual book-fair, reading by well-known authors and poets, storytelling and poetry nights,) Irish theatre shows and art exhibitions.

The centre is currently under threat of closure as the local authority, which owns the property, has decided to sell it. The Irish Centre has launched a fundraising campaign to raise the necessary funds to purchase the building.

Other Irish cultural centres include: Tyneside, Leeds, Camden and St Michael’s Irish Centre in Liverpool.

Sports

The Gaelic Athletics Association (GAA) is the governing body for Gaelic games such as Gaelic football, hurling and camogie. The GAA in Britain employ a team of seven development workers who promote GAA games in schools. Gaelic football has become one of the fastest-growing sports in British schools in recent years.

The GAA is currently trying to gain recognition by Sport England as a governing body for Gaelic sports in Britain and FIS has been supporting the GAA in this process.

Campaigns

Community care The mid-1980s heralded a new increase in emigration from Ireland. While many of the new arrivals were well equipped for the move, the move across the sea had left a sizeable number extremely vulnerable and many fell through the social safety net – in the early 1990s, according to Shelter UK, one in three of London’s homeless population was Irish. Through our Community Care network, the federation was able to campaign for the Irish in Britain and provide support. It was involved in the founding of several housing associations – Irish Centre Housing, Cara, Innisfree and An Teach – which marked a real breakthrough in the provision of services of the community. It continues to be central to the delivery of services to disadvantaged Irish men and women in Britain today.

Links

http://www.irishnetworkbritain.org/

http://www.howirishareyou.com/

http://www.irishpost.ie/

http://www.londonirishcentre.org/

http://cuchulainnsgaa.com/

http://www.irishculturalcentre.co.uk/

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