"JOSEPH STALIN stayed in a Rowton House in 1907. Jack London and
George Orwell both wrote of these workingmen’s hostels. Arlington House,
the last and the biggest of them, was built by the philanthropist Lord
Rowton in Camden in 1905, and has been home to more Irish labourers than
any other building outside the Emerald Isle, an Irish charity says. But
those who could moved on, and over time a handsome place intended to be
a decent haven for low-paid but clean-living workers became the haunt
of drunks and drug-abusers. It was known as the biggest doss-house in

Arlington House is a large hostel for single men in Camden Town. It has been home to many thousands of workers, poets and visionaries over the 105 years of its long history. Among those who have spent the night under its Victorian gothic roof are George Orwell, Brendan Behan, Ho Chi Min and Patrick Kavanagh the Irish poet who said in his autobiographical book The Green Fool:

Photo of the memorial to the Irish tenants of Arlington House hostel, in London's Camden Town. The memorial is in Finchley cemetary, where many of the tenants are buried.

Aisling worker Alex McDonnell and comedian Ardal O'Hanlon at the memorial.  Ardal, like Patrick Kavanagh a Monaghan man, said some words about
Aisling and read a passage from Kavanagh's novel 'the Green Fool'.  He also read selections of Kavanagh's poetry at the graveyard.

Picture of Sylvester Phelan, long time Arlington resident. He's going
back to Co. Laois to live in his family home in August.

We discovered there is such a thing as sunshine in Donegal. It lasted a whole week and nine of us were there to bear witness to this unprecedented event. While the skyways of Europe were emptied of planes afraid of a wee bit of volcanic ash, we crossed over to Dublin on the ferry.

A returnee with the Aisling project has a quiet pause in the solitude of Co. Donegal.

Alex McDonnell reports on Aisling’s all-woman trip to Wicklow for the national day celebrations.  

Photo from Aisling's first women only trip. See full story above...

For full story on the Aisling trip to Mayo 2009, see below - http://www.aisling.org.uk/drupal/?q=node/48