Why Ulysses House?

Derek Langran a former Chairman of our Board of Directors tells how years later his Fathers prayers were answered when IBI moved into Ulysses House.

"I can recall in 1943 sitting on a horse-drawn wagon, rattling over the cobbles in Foley Street, beside a driver called Ned, en route to Fairview with a delivery of beds.  I was 8 years of age and twice a week I would walk down Foley street to meet my Dad who managed an upholstery factory there.  It was an appalling street, containing terrible tenements with over-crowding that Dublin of today knows nothing about.  The street was neglected by the Corporation, cobbled, filthy, and poorly lit.  

Mid way through this year I looked out from the top of Ulysses House with growing amazement, realised that I was standing on the very site of the premises formerly managed by my father all those years ago.  Dad worked in Foley Street for more than 20 years.  He prayed each day for the street and its poverty-stricken people.  He would often give little tracts about Jesus to the children and pay them little sums of money to keep an eye on his bicycle for him.  

Looking out from Ulysses House, I thank God that my Father's prayers for the street and for Dublin have now been answered.  I hope this will be an encouragement to all prayer-warriors. God inevitably hears; He inevitably answers in His own way and in His own time. IBI is now on this site and that's an answer to prayer.  

My Dad died in 1988, never saw his prayers answered, but God, bless His name, has his own timing."