According to the thumbnail supplied to the Charity Regulator, Common Purpose Ireland is just another “not-for-profit organisation that brings together people from a wide range of backgrounds to help them become more effective leaders in society.”
In pursuit of that, it claims that its programmes help to “bring together people from very different backgrounds and sectors who might otherwise never meet.” Not unless, of course, they happened to be hanging around Áras an Uachtaráin waiting for a consultation with the Prez as a member of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC).
Members of Common Purpose do not generally broadcast their affiliation but we do know that one current member of the IHREC, Salome Mbugua (who is also CEO of AkiDwA), is a current trustee of Common Purpose.
Heidi Foster Breslin is a former Chairperson of Common Purpose and was appointed by President Higgins to the IHREC for a five-year term that ended in 2023. Breslin was previously CEO of Katherine Zappone’s An Cosán, which if nothing else launched the career of Senator Lynn Ruane.
There would not be too many small anonymous NGOs who have had two of their members appointed by the President to such a prestigious body. As we shall see, it certainly punches above its weight and Common Purpose was also allowed the free use of a state building at 31-35 Bow Street, Dublin, for 17 years.
This is an extraordinary situation that only seemingly came to an end when it was highlighted by Gript through Freedom of Information requests that were never actually finally properly answered, and through Parliamentary Questions form Rural Independent TD Carol Nolan.
Indeed, the B1C annual return of Common Purpose filed with the Companies Registration Office last September (which it was noted was late) gives Bow Street as the address where their register of members is kept.
In common with other NGOs which seek, successfully it has to be said, to influence the doings of the malleable elite of the Irish state – Advance HE who have ultimate responsibility for the Athena SWAN “equality and diversity” programme being another – Common Purpose are basically the Irish section of a UK company.
That UK company has impressive connections to ruling circles and state patronage, as is also the case with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue which continues the long history of Brit oversight of the Paddies and Patsys.
Common Purpose was founded in 1989 by Julia Middleton – who had a background as a co-founder of DEMOS along with Martin Jaques former editor of Marxism Today, the journal of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Jacques is the author of When China Rules the World, and is one of the foremost apologists for the Chinese Communist Party. DEMOS was regarded as a key ideological component of the Labour Party under Tony Blair.
Common Purpose pursues an ostensibly social democratic vision with much reference to diversity and inclusion, and its clear focus is on building influence among the public sector and NGOs. The former Commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, is a graduate of Common Purpose courses. Some of the police officers and social services managers in Rotherham at the time of the widespread rape of children were graduates of Common Purpose training courses.
Common Purpose was also criticised during the 2012 Levenson Inquiry into the British press, and as a consequence of this influence, attention was paid to how Common Purpose had managed to build such strong links to the state with one person describing it as “The Left’s version of the old boys’ network.”
Reference was made to the fact that in a five year period prior to 2012, that British government departments, as well as various police services and the BBC had spent well over £1,000,000 on courses provided by Common Purpose.
When you try to access the Common Purpose (Ireland) accounts, you are linked to the overall UK company accounts. Interestingly, that has not always been the case with Common Purpose (Ireland.) Their 2020 financial statement provides a summary of their income here of €219,834. In contrast if you follow the link to the 2022 accounts, you are directed to the UK company’s accounts which show an income of more than £4 million, and a workforce of more than 80. There is no separate accounting of the Irish operation.
The 2020 accounts were audited by KPMG but they resigned as auditors to take effect from October 2023, as notified to the Companies Registration Office.
Common Purpose have filed accounts with the Charity Regulator for 2022 which show that they had an income of €274,082 and that they employed 4 people here. They claimed that all of their income came from “trading and commercial activities,” which presumably includes payments for the provision of the sort of training sessions for the staff of Government departments which they have been involved in over the past decade.
A PQ from Carol Nolan TD in 2021 ascertained that Common Purpose had been paid over €300,000 for such training. Such training is nothing to do with computer skills or preventing punch ups at the water fountain. It is, as is the Athena SWAN programme in EDI, designed to impart “values” that are intimately connected to Common Purpose’s origins within the British Labour left.
That ideological dimension is confirmed not only by the organisation’s history in the UK, but in the profile of some of its “alumni” here, such as the former Labour mayor of Dublin, Alison Gilliland. Gilliland was an equality officer with the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) where she specialised in LGBT+ issues and is now working for the EU Committee of the Regions.
As with much of the Woke left, Common Purpose’s establishment here was backed not by lads and lasses who worked down pit or at the till in Dunnes, but by persons well known in both the business and NGO sectors. The original 1996 subscribers and directors listed on its Constitution include Gillian Bowler of Budget Travel and Clive Brownlee of Guinness.
William Earley, Paul Heffernan and Alan Fitzpatrick of McCann Fitzgerald were also on the list, and the corporate law company is based at the same Riverside address as Common Purpose.
The other subscribers were Gary McCann of Aer Lingus and Hugh Frazer then of the Combat Poverty Agency who later worked with the EU Commission and then became a Professor of Social Studies at Maynooth.
None of the above are still directors. One of the original directors was Phil Flynn who has been Vice President of Sinn Féin and President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU.)
In 2005, Flynn, who was then a director of the Bank of Scotland, had his office raided by the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB) in connection with the investigation into IRA finances, though no charges were brought against him. Since then Flynn has been a director of Sport against Racism, as well as several Ballyfermot based community and private companies.
The current secretary of Common Purpose, Carol Conway, has also been a director of The Wheel. Other directors include:
Joseph Ruane who is a manager with the HSE and formerly worked with the NHS in the north; Jack Kavanagh has his own company involved in “other human health activities;” Fiona Keane had a translation business which appears to have been dissolved; Salome Mbuga of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission and AkiDwA is now also a director of Women’s Aid.
Orla Cunningham has moved from banking to the NGO world and was a director of the Atlantic Philanthropies funded Children’s Rights Alliance. She is now a director of the Trinity Online Services attached to the University. Tavengwa Tavengwa is a partner at the extremely Woke corporate giant Ernst and Young and is also a director of the Effernock Estate Owners Management Company.
Sarah Suzanne Bean is a strategic advisor at COTY a multibillion dollar cosmetics company which is one of key partners in Global Citizen, a heavy hitting NGO devoted to eliminating poverty through the “lens of intersectionality.” Simon Davies is the other director and chairperson of the trustees.
Liberals were once fond of demanding to know who in Irish public life had associations with Catholic organisations such as the Knights of Columbanus. In a spirit of reconciliation and equity, would it not be nice to know who else in positions of prominence are members or “alumni” of this liberal group?
We will continue to perform our modest part in providing you with this information, on all fronts.