Drovers Day Centre

• ARE Jeremy Corbyn and Labour councillors so sure of the Irish vote in Britain that they, openly, knowingly and cruelly discriminate against fragile and infirm Irish elders, by closing their last lifeline and refuge, the Drovers Day Centre at the Cally?

I don’t remember a public meeting in the town hall or elsewhere, to discuss such a destructive move. The £170,000 cost of building repairs is small change for this council, who squandered nearly half a million on a court case and subsequent measures, to keep dangerous, polluting and carcinogenic barbecues turning Highbury Fields into a 1950s London smog.

The impoverished Irish were the human cargo on the cattle boats that brought these teenagers, from their families and communities in Ireland, to arrive at King’s Cross and settle around the Cally. They fought bravely in two world wars winning the highest honours.

They built London Underground and used those skills to breach the German lines in WWI. They provided teachers, domestics, post office staff, labourers and the skilled workers who built Islington Town Hall and housing stock.

In WWII 400,000 Irish men and women braved torpedoes and bombing to sail to Britain to join the British forces and provide civilian hospital nurses and doctors.

Overall, they won 11 Victoria Crosses and 780 awards for gallantry with two young hospital nurses winning the George Medal after they entered a burning building and rescued people from the top floor. In the Battle of Britain, 1,000 Irish pilots and crew lost their lives.

Since the Brexit vote, the Irish have been harshly blamed for keeping Britain in the EU when they have not the power to divest themselves of the British colonial presence in Northern Ireland. Only Britain can return our six counties.

Affordable housing is only a miniscule part of any development and yet Labour are sacrificing the health and wellbeing of Irish elders to change this site away from its invaluable present use.

The Drovers provides elders with health-giving companionship and saves the NHS considerable monies. It’s a last place of refuge for the descendants of the immigrant Irish whose hard work has kept Islington coffers topped up for decades.

When St Luke’s art class was abolished, people who had successfully held off life- threatening illnesses succumbed without their beloved lifeboat.

It was cruel and thoughtless of Islington Labour to announce the Drovers closure just before Christmas when many elders, who sacrificed marriage to work and send home much-needed funds, may be alone. And shame on councillors calling themselves Irish, who have stood back and allowed this injustice to happen!

RÓISÍN NÍ ĊORRÁIN
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