History
The Aisling Society traces its origins to 1954, when three friends gathered at Pfahlert’s Hotel in Margaret Street: Mary Hegarty, a classical scholar and teacher, Brian McGrath, a distinguished Sydney lawyer, and Fr Nicholas McNally. They shared a love of Ireland, of literature and history and of learning generally, and they decided to form a society devoted to those interests.
The name they chose, “Aisling” (pronounced Ash-ling), is an Irish word meaning a dream or vision. The Aisling poems and songs were a phenomenon of the “hidden Ireland” of the penal times of the eighteenth century, helping to keep alive among Irish people a knowledge of the past, a pride in their heritage and a hope for the future.
On 16 March 1955, the inaugural meeting of the Aisling Society of Sydney was held, a constitution adopted and office-bearers elected. The first ordinary meeting was held in April 1955, and a talk was given by one of the society’s first great characters, James A Meagher. In every year since then, the society has hosted monthly talks on the fourth Wednesday of each month, on a wide range of subjects.
For more on the early history of The Aisling Society, see this extract from Passing the Torch.
To read the Aisling Society Constitution download the PDF here.
For reports prior to 2001, please contact the Archivist, Peter Gray SC.