The Irish Chaplaincy in Britain (ICB) has announced that Bruce Kent, a
leading Catholic Human rights advocate and founder of the Campaign for
Nuclear Disarmament has become a patron of the Chaplaincy.
Kent is a former Catholic priest and with a long history of
campaigning on human rights issues, having been chair of the
anti-poverty organisation War on Want.
His past roles, and in which
capacity his name became well established, were as General Secretary and
Chairman of CND. He is currently Vice President of that organisation.
The Irish Chaplaincy in Britain run three projects, helping
vulnerable members of Irish community through their Irish Council for
Prisoners overseas, The Irish Older Person's Project and The Irish
Travellers research project.
The ICB worked with over one thousand
vulnerable members of the Irish community in Britain in 2010.
Accepting the invitation to become a patron, Bruce Kent said, "I am
delighted to accept the offer to become a Patron of the Irish
Chaplaincy, it means a lot to me as my family roots are in Silvermines
in County Tipperary, from where my family moved to Canada."
Chair of the Board of Trustees at the ICB, John Walsh welcomed Mr
Kent as a patron and said, "As a well-known and respected Catholic, we
know that Bruce’s support for our charity will lend credibility and
support to our cause of journeying in hope with our vulnerable Irish
emigrants today.”
"This is the first time that we have approached anyone in the public sphere to ask them to consider becoming a patron for us, and we hope that with Bruce's help , we can better galvanise the wider Irish community to work together to ensure that no member of our community is forgotten."
"This is the first time that we have approached anyone in the public sphere to ask them to consider becoming a patron for us, and we hope that with Bruce's help , we can better galvanise the wider Irish community to work together to ensure that no member of our community is forgotten."