Meitheal Muintire
Irish End-of-Life Care Project
About the project
The Irish End-of-Life-Care-Project, co-sponsored by Irish in Britain and Innisfree Housing Association aims to develop a community informed response to improve practice in enabling dignified and responsive end-of-life care for individuals and their families.
The project was mandated by a unanimous vote of member organisations at Irish in Britain’s AGM last November.
Meitheal Muintire
The project’s title "Meitheal Muintire" comes from the ancient tradition of community teamwork in rural Ireland.
"Meitheal" (pronounced "meh-hal") describes this concept of cooperation, a coming together in the service of a shared task. "Muintire" means "people" or "family" in Irish, so "meitheal muintire" emphasises the community aspect of the tradition.
We will start by listening to the end-of-life experiences of Irish people, their families and carers living in Britain. As part of this process, we will collect examples of good practice alongside details of the challenges people have faced.
We will seek input from all parts of the Irish community and particularly from Travellers, survivors, people of mixed heritage and LGBTQ+ communities.
Community contribution
The community will be able to contribute to the project in a range of ways including online, face-to-face, in groups, individually and at events.
We anticipate that at the end of this year long project, we will produce a collaborative report to set the way ahead – a community charter for change.
We intend to use this report to spread examples of good practice but also to seek support for solutions to the identified challenges from representatives, organisations and bodies.
The desired outcome is for the Irish community network to be able and confident to actively promote culturally sensitive end-of life-care.
Current planned activities
Launch event: London Irish Centre 24 April 2025 at 2.30 to 3.30pm.
Marked by a performance of The Keening by BAFTA-winning Achill Island writer Kevin Toolis and acclaimed Connemara Sean Nós singer Caitríona Ni Chennabháin.
Facilitated workshops: in London, Liverpool and Leeds.
Contact
If you are interested in contributing to this project, please contact info@irishinbritain.org with subject line 'End-of-life care project'.