‘Aunties in England’ Project Celebrates Launch at the Irish Embassy in London

On 18 June 2025, the ‘Aunties in England: Exploring Stories of Irish Immigration, Identities, and Connections to Home’ project celebrated their podcast launch at the Irish Embassy in London. The project is part of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) programme’s Incubation Labs, a series of AFSEE-funded initiatives designed to foster and support impactful and innovative cross-cohort collaborative projects initiated, led, and implemented by AFSEE Senior Fellows.

The launch event was planned with the support of the Irish Embassy in London to bring together community members, oral history experts, and the AFSEE Fellowship network to celebrate and discuss the findings.

‘Aunties in England’ documents the experiences of Irish women who emigrated to London between the 1960s and 1990s, exploring their reasons for leaving, their adaptation to life in England, and their evolving sense of identity. Through a series of oral history interviews, the project sheds light on the challenges these women faced, from discrimination to cultural adjustment, while also capturing their resilience and contributions to both British and Irish communities. The project members also conducted an interview with Catherine Dunne, author of An Unconsidered People, whose work on Irish emigration in the 1950s provided historical context to the project.

The project is led by AFSEE Senior Fellows from across three different cohorts: Jenny McEneaney, Michaela Rafferty, Nicola Browne, and Clare MacGillivray. They worked together with their community partner Ashford Place, which is a London-based organisation that delivers inclusive services supported by a broad range of funders, addressing the needs of individuals from many different backgrounds. Ashford Place’s commitment to social inclusion, wellbeing, and community engagement remains at the heart of its work, extending its support across cultures, ethnicities, and life circumstances while still honouring its Irish heritage.

The project aims to capture and preserve the personal histories of Irish women emigrants to London through oral history interviews and to contextualise these stories within the broader historical and social narratives of Irish emigration, gender, and identity. Through these objectives, the project members developed a six-part podcast series that shares these experiences with a wider audience, offering insights into themes of migration, belonging, and intergenerational connections. The podcast series is available to listen to on all platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The podcast was produced with support from Roger Gowdy of Castmastery.

The podcast launch event on 18 June began with an introduction to the evening by the Irish Ambassador Martin Fraser, followed by a presentation on the project by Jenny McEneaney and Michaela Rafferty. In their presentation, Jenny and Michaela introduced the project, its aims, and shared snippets from the podcast episodes.

The event continued with a panel discussion chaired by Jenny, with Catherine Dunne, Renee Gallagher Dolan from Ashford Place, Rosa Gilbert from Irish in Britain, and AFSEE Executive Director Armine Ishkanian as speakers. Each speaker discussed their own experiences within their work and collectively reflected on what the Irish emigrant experience can tell us about how the anti-emigration protests in Ireland can be understood and addressed.  

The project not only preserves the voices of Irish emigrants but also fosters dialogue on identity and migration between past and present generations. By working closely with Ashford Place, the Incubation Lab ensures a non-extractive, co-produced storytelling process. Beyond the podcast, the Incubation Lab aims to further engage with Irish cultural institutions and diaspora networks, exploring additional funding for dissemination and future storytelling initiatives.