About us
The Mount Street Club Trust is a charitable trust, originally founded in Dublin in 1934 as the Mount Street Club. The main object of the Trust is the relief of the effects of disadvantage and poverty.
With roots in the early 20th century cooperative movement and originally founded to address issues of unemployment, the Mount Street Club Trust now has an almost 100-year history of serial reinvention in response to a changing context of socio-economic injustice.
The red thread running through that history is found in the Trust’s consistent values of equity, human relationships, reciprocity, ethical leadership and empowerment. Guided by these values, the Trust has over the years repeatedly sought to engage with the realities of poverty, exclusion and disempowerment in order to change them.
The current work of the Trust is the Hope & Ambition initiative, an ongoing experiment in trust-based philanthropy, seeking to generate real change for disadvantaged communities in the Greater Dublin Area.
Who we support
Hope & Ambition is a collaborative partnership with a number of community-based initiatives focused on social justice and the empowerment of people and communities experiencing inequity and exclusion.
We currently support six organisations through Hope & Ambition:
Our Trustees
In addition to our current board of trustees pictured below, we would also like to acknowledge with appreciation the contribution of our former trustees who have all helped to shape the contribution of the Trust today.
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Margaret Barry is the Chairperson of the Mount Street Club Trust and has been a trustee since 2008. She brings expertise in strategic development, national and local policy, grant making and community development, drawing on experience gained with non-profit and public service organisations in Ireland, including the role of Senior Projects Manager at the Combat Poverty Agency which she held for many years.
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Charlie Delap has been a trustee since the 1970s, taking over the role from his father, Hugh, who was one of the founders of the Mount Street Club. Now retired, Charlie spent most of his working life in social work and social policy and brings invaluable expertise and skills to the Trust.
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Katherine P Meyer has been a trustee since 2023 and currently holds the role of Secretary. Her experience is in pastoral work, teaching, community development, and social justice advocacy. She is currently engaged in work with both the Irish School of Ecumenics and the Corrymeela Community and relishes the new friendships and collaborations that her work with the Trust is making possible.
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Robert Galavan has been Trustee since 2021. He holds the Chair in Strategic Management at the School of Business, Maynooth University, directs the MSc in Strategy and Innovation and is an Academic Director of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute.
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Micheál Ó Conghaile has been a trustee since 2026 and currently holds the role of Treasurer. A qualified accountant with 25 years’ experience in financial services as a senior leader and non-executive director, Micheál brings extensive leadership and governance expertise. He was drawn to the Trust by its social impact and commitment to empowering those at the margins of society.
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Alison Sleeth has been a trustee since 2023. She works in the area of Strategic HR & Organisational Development, holds masters degrees in both Financial Economics and Human Resource Management and has experience working with public and private sector organisations.
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Pavithra Ramesh has been a trustee since 2026. She is a social researcher with a decade of transdisciplinary experience in sustainability, impact assessment and finance, and holds a masters degree in International Economics & Political Studies. Pavithra first encountered the work of the Mount Street Club Trust while working with Philanthropy Ireland as its Impact Research Lead.
Mount Street Moments
In 2023 we commissioned a trio of short video interviews with three of our trustees, teasing out the essence of the Mount Street Club Trust.
Charlie Delap, our longest-serving trustee, has played a vital role in the evolution of the Mount Street Club Trust. Here he recounts the origins of the Trust, his family connections with it, his own career and the experience of being a trustee.
Margaret Barry, our current Chairperson, highlights the vital need for longer funding cycles to support work with marginalised communities and the value of trust-based philanthropy.
Former trustee Sarah Perrem describes the ethos and practice of Hope & Ambition, our funding and development initiative, and the family connections that led her to become a trustee.
“Innovation or the quest for new approaches to old problems keeps things interesting as well as keeping people engaged and enthusiastic, or at the very least, hopeful.”
— Charles Delap, Trustee of the Mount Street Club Trust