Walk of hope with the Irish Chaplaincy

At Irish Embassy with Ambassador Adrian O'Neill

When I began volunteering with the Irish Chaplaincy in summer 2019 little did I know that I would be creating an eleven-mile walk through London as a fundraiser in 2021!

Volunteering in 2019 was straightforward. Then, the Chaplaincy facilitated visits to elderly Irish in their own homes, care or nursing homes, keeping personal contacts and meeting practical and pastoral needs. All this changed with Covid-19. Similarly those working with the 1000 or so Irish women and men in prisons here in England, through the Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas (ICPO) and Travellers Equality Project (TEP), had the doors closed to visits and contact became restricted.

Ever forward looking, the Chaplaincy team have found creative ways of keeping contact: regular phone calls, ordering food deliveries, involving a London school in sending Christmas and Easter cards to the isolated, setting up tablets that the elderly could use in their own homes to find Mass, Irish radio stations and more, creating packs of puzzle books, CDs, drawing materials and stamps to send in to prisons, are just some of the initiatives developed over the past year. All of this requires funding so the #WalkwithHope idea emerged in early spring. Could we set aside a week that would both reflect the hope-giving work of the Chaplaincy and raise funds? Of course we could.

Fast forward to 21 April and twelve of us set off from Sacred Heart Parish, Quex Road, to walk to the Irish Embassy in Belgravia, a distance of around eleven miles. The opportunity of creating a walk that would reflect something of the presence of the Irish in London was a gift for me because I love to walk. Quex Road parish, established in 1885, has been a focal point for the Irish community for generations. One of our walkers had been married in the Church which hosts a plaque to the forgotten Irish of London. En-route some walkers remembered a house lived in as newly-weds and as we stopped for a photograph at the Grand Union Canal near Harrow Road we remembered the hundreds of Irish who worked on canal and railway building.

Our most poignant stop was at Wormwood Scrubs prison where we stopped to pray for prisoners, their families and those who work with them. We heard that since Covid-19 most prisoners have been locked in their cells for 23 hours a day. When allowed out, time restrictions create impossible choices: join the line to phone home, have a shower or sort out any problems. What a choice?

Those walking were staff, volunteers and friends from the Chaplaincy, and representatives of Irish Radio, the magazine the Craic is Back, Cara Stationery and the Irish Council of County Associations. As always with walking projects, stories were shared and new friendships were formed. Arriving at the Irish Embassy - just five minutes late - we were warmly welcomed by Ambassador Adrian O'Neill and his team who took us in for a welcome, and socially distanced, cup of tea.

Lots more is happening this week as part of the #WalkwithHope project, including a walk/visit to St Bride's Church (the Journalist Church) a walk of reconciliation between Westminster Cathedral and Westminster Abbey with Bishop Paul McAleenan, Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster, a visit to Holy Family School, West Action who are 'walking with hope' during the week and will meet Chaplaincy team members and some of our seniors who have received cards and messages from the pupils over the past year.

Keeping hope alive is core work of the Irish Chaplaincy and this week has given us an opportunity to celebrate and support this work. I raised more than £600 into the bargain!

Find out more here about how you can support the Irish Chaplaincy: www.irishchaplaincy.org.uk/