Hammersmith Irish Centre gets £500K from Government

...The Irish Government, that is. The Centre, which is a focal point for the Irish diaspora in London, in particularly the elderly, has been under threat since our Council changed its mind about a lease extension to 2017, for which it had already sent the documents to the Centre, and announced it was going to sell the building instead.

This prompted the Irish Government to declare itself "disappointed" with H&F Council, with President Macaleese even having paid a visit there alongside Council Leader Stephen Greenhalgh not very long before the announcement to sell. The Centre itself launched an online petition calling for the Council to reconsider alongside their own fundraising campaign to buy the building, which now seems distinctly possible.

Irish Central has all the low-down here

Reflecting on this you have to give our Council credit, really. Amid the sound and fury it now seems that the Council taxpayer will not be footing a bill for a continued local service which will now apparently be funded by a combination of private donations and investment from the Irish. Whatever the rights and wrongs of how they have managed the processes that's a pretty impressive end result.