Welcome to our website
The Irish Chaplaincy in Britain (ICB) was established in 1957, as a direct response by the Bishops in Ireland to the emerging needs of the young emigrants during the great exodus of the 1950s and 1960s. The Catholic Church, although a vocal opponent of the causes of mass emigration, nonetheless recognised the problems facing emigrants and set up practical schemes to help. In this difficult context, during the intervening fifty years, the Irish Chaplaincy proved to be one of the most dynamic and innovative agencies working for Irish emigrants in the UK.
As Fr Bobby Gilmore, an Irish priest who served as a chaplain observed, "the psychological journey of migration takes far longer than the geographical one".
Today, our small but dedicated staff team continues to support three distinct groups of Irish emigrants - Irish Travellers, Irish prisoners and Irish older people - through our three services that you can read more about on this website. These three projects successfully identify who the most vulnerable of Irish emigrants are today, both in terms of their numbers, and the severity of the abuse of their rights.
We are proud of the work that quietly but diligently goes on each day in the ICB, and are determined that despite difficult financial pot holes in the road ahead, that these three services will continue to be part of the future vision for the agency. Although patterns of emigration change from generation to generation, nonetheless the ongoing mission of ICB remains as relevant and urgent as ever. We invite you, through this website to learn more about our work and to share the rest of the journey with us. Read our vision, mission and ethos statement which may be downloaded via the link below.
