Maeve Heath

A London Irish Story as told to Anna Johnston

I sat down with the London Irish Centre’s longest standing volunteer, Maeve Heath. Maeve begins her story in Dublin and why she moved to London:

“I was born in Milltown, Dublin in 1939. I had two brothers and two sisters. It was a very hard life in Dublin in those days. My mother passed away when she was 45 years of age. When that happened, my dad couldn’t go to work with the heartbreak. He always worked very hard, but just couldn't accept my mother passing. My mother died of cancer; she had her right arm amputated a year before she died. Back then they never called it cancer, they said it was a diseased muscle in the arm. But it went into the lungs, and my father couldn't get over it. And he went off the head a bit. We’d plead with him to go to work but he just couldn’t do it.

“We had absolutely nothing! And that is what motivated the decision for a better life by moving to London.”

I was working in a shop across the road at the time. In those days you were starting at one pound two shillings and six pence a week. Imagine having six mouths to feed and paying rent with that, we had absolutely nothing! And that is what motivated the decision for a better life by moving to London. 

My brother was already over in England and my dad, and I joined him in 1962. My sister Ann followed a few months later. 

When my sister and I first came over and we were looking for a room, the first place we went had a note in the window saying, “No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish” and I thought it was disgusting. That upset me. I thought how could these people be so horrible? What is wrong with us? Like back then we may have been poor, but we were honest people. When I told my husband (who was English) he said, “You’ve got to be joking me!” He didn’t believe it until I took him to the place in Finsbury Park and I showed him the sign on the window. 

“When my sister and I first came over and we were looking for a room, the first place we went had a note in the window saying, “No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish” and I thought it was disgusting.”

I met my husband at my first job in England at a company called PYE Radio & Television in Holloway. I hated him when we first met as he was my supervisor. However, the more we got to know each other that quickly began to change. We were in love and married for 23 years and had two beautiful sons together. Unfortunately, I lost my husband in 1985. As you can imagine it was extremely hard, but we had no other choice than to get through it. 

Maeve continued and reminisced on her first impressions of London:

“I couldn't believe that there were no trees when I first moved over. It was nothing like where we lived in Dublin, we used to look out on the Dublin mountains. And London was nothing but buildings. I couldn't cope with it! When I first started seeing my husband we were out for a drive in the countryside and I said, “Oh so you do have trees out here?!” He said ‘you're crazy, of course we have trees.’

When I first started seeing my husband we were out for a drive in the countryside and I said, “Oh so you do have trees out here?!” He said ‘you're crazy, of course we have trees.’

The only time I felt anyway different here being Irish was the night I was working in the Irish Centre and bombs had exploded in Regents Park in 1982, killing a couple of British soldiers and horses. The phones never stopped ringing here that night. We had people calling saying “We’re coming in now and we’re going to kill every Irish person in the building.” We had a big function on that night in the McNamara Hall and the police came to search everyone’s bags, it made me feel very uneasy.”

Maeve’s London Irish Story would not be complete without mentioning that she’s the London Irish Centre’s longest standing volunteer and reflects on how it all began:

“My volunteering at the Centre started unexpectedly one night when one of the Priests said, “Do me a favour and give us a hand washing up in the kitchen?”  In those days you didn’t say no when a priest asked you to do something. There were three hundred people in the McNamara Hall for dinner that night and no dishwashers. I had to say to my husband, “You better take the boys home- I’m going to be here all night.” And sure, enough it was 4am by the time I left. All these jobs were just “Thank you” jobs back then. 

“Now it’s great to see the younger generation coming into the centre and bringing all their new ideas. That’s the future of this place and it’s wonderful to see.”

I just love the London Irish Centre though, and it has been my lifeline since my husband died. I used to live across the road and now I live just off Camden Road in assisted living.

I love to see all the new people in the centre now because we never had that. We always had the older generations, who were here for years. Now it’s great to see the younger generation coming into the centre and bringing all their new ideas. That’s the future of this place and it’s wonderful to see.

“London of course is my home now because my kids are here, and their families are here.”

The London Irish Centre held a surprise party for my 40 years in the centre. I was so surprised, but all my family were in on it. I had a lovely message from Dermot O’Leary and the Irish President. It was fantastic to think that they thought so much of me to do something as special as that.

London of course is my home now because my kids are here, and their families are here. But we’ll still say we’re going home when travelling to Ireland. It’s amazing how it still automatically comes out that way.”

To find out how you can volunteer at the London Irish Centre, check out the link below: www.londonirishcentre.org/donate/volunteer/