The Viraj Mendis Memorial Meeting and Archive Launch

Photo courtesy of Rachel Bywater Photography.

On 1 March 2025, we were honoured to host the Viraj Mendis Memorial Meeting here at Ascension Hulme — a deeply significant event that paid tribute to the life and legacy of Sri Lankan radical and human rights activist, Viraj Mendis. It was a return to a space that once offered sanctuary. Mendis famously took refuge in our church for over two years during the late 1980s and went on to dedicate his life to the Tamil cause and wider struggles against racism and imperialism.

To welcome over a hundred people, including Mendis’s family, old comrades and supporters, back into this space was a powerful reminder of how places of sanctuary can become sites of resistance and remembrance. For us at Ascension Hulme, it was a privilege to hold space for such an important moment in activist history and community memory.

Earlier this year, the Viraj Mendis Defence Committee held a powerful memorial meeting and archive launch at Manchester Central Library, honouring the anti-deportation campaign that made national headlines in the 1980s. The event marked the unveiling of a new archive preserving this important chapter of Manchester’s activist history.

You can read the full article written by Dr Kerry Pimblott, Senior Lecturer in International History here: www.racerootsresist.com/post/the-viraj-mendis-memorial-meeting-and-archive-launch