This week I have ...

 

• met the good men and women of St. John Bosco's Friendship club who are filling in questionnaires for me, thank you Sister Justine
• checked over stories with key players at The Emerald Centre
• collected more info from the Emerald Centre lunch club
• decided on a date for the celebration event, March 12 at The Emerald Centre.More details later. began arrangements for a bus trip around Leicester to revisit old haunts
• began arrangements for videoing key players in their homes with Tony's daughter Aisling
• met with staff at Leicester Library who have been very helpful with ideas for display and publicity, thank you Simon
• began to create my own Google map showing where we lived, thank you Paul.

A lovely lady I have met, Sheila Sullivan, called to discuss her story and to correct some details ( I must learn to take better notes!).
As she put the phone down she said "God Bless, Lynda."
That soft Irish accent and the genuine, heartfelt blessing made me cry.
These connections are going back a long way.

 

This project was always going to be about connections, old and new. As I gather more and more information from the Irish community here in Leicester those connections are gradually coming to the surface.

I have met someone whose mother used to love a rake around Leicester Market with my auntie Greta and who, himself, went to school with my cousin Roseanna.

I have had contact with the son of a man who, until now, has just been a name on a list of lost old friends given to me weeks ago… and completely by chance met up with a man who was decorating my house the day the Twin towers were attacked.

I am talking to librarians and professors, priests and nuns. This project has officially started!

If you'd like to be involved contact us on 0116 276 9186 or pop in to: 

The Emerald Centre, Gipsy Lane, Leicester. LE5 OTB

We're now also on Twitter: follow me on  @irishleicester or join The Irish in Leicester group on Facebook.

Click here to view a map of The Irish in Leicester.