Project Children benefits youth and host families alike
In 1998 American volunteers described taking Catholic and Protestant children from Northern Ireland into their homes for six summer weeks away from the marching season.
As printed in the Celtic Mirror, April 1998
"I have been blessed with this opportunity of a lifetime. I am very proud to be a part of Project Children. All we can hope is that the things the children have learned from this experience will make a difference. As Project Children says, 'One child at a time.'" The speaker is Tim Butler, the Lehigh Valley, Pa. Coordinator of Project Children.
Project Children is a national group that began in 1975. It now has more than 4,000 members in more than 15 states. The group's purpose is to bring both Protestant and Catholic children of ages 10 to 14 to the United States for a six-week respite during the "marching season" in Ireland, when Protestants march through Catholic neighborhoods.
Explained Butler, "During the summer, when the marches take place, they provoke many protests both peaceful and violent. Many times riots ensue and innocent people get hurt. When this occurs, there is much uneasiness throughout the North. Families are sometimes threatened and barricaded so heavily they cannot even leave their homes."
According to Marianne MacDonald, the Sewell, N.J., coordinator, "The kids say the Protestants do it to show they are in control, to show superiority - not specifically to instigate violence, but to let Catholics know who is in control."
MacDonald, who just recently visited Belfast, also commented, "We have no idea over here what it's like for them to go through that. They are going about their daily life in their own neighborhood, and innocent people are getting killed. I came back very moved and happy that the kids here don't have to go through that."
In describing one of his most rewarding experiences with the project, Butler said, "The trips to and from the airport with the children are one of the high points. We take a bus to JFK to pick the children up as they first arrive in the USA.
"The children are very scared. Most of them have never been away from home before. All of them are nervous, some very afraid. They question me about their host families. They want me to reassure them that all will be OK. We spend the long drive back to the Lehigh Valley calming their fears as best we can.
"When we arrive in the Lehigh Valley, they meet their host family for the first time. They reluctantly allow these strange people to break them up and drive off to their new homes for the next six weeks. After six weeks, the families return the children to the pickup point and the waiting bus. Everyone says their good-byes at this time.
"The long trip back to the airport is very different from that first bus ride. The children are all very talkative, telling each other of the great experiences they have had, each child trying to top the other's story. Already we see the change we have made in their young lives. All we can hope is that the things they have learned from this experience will make a difference."
MacDonald said, "I work at a school for the handicapped, and the girls I hosted volunteered. They love working there. So, not only do we help them, they help us by volunteering."
Concluded Butler, "We are showing host families year after year what it is like to help. Each host family, and every member of that family, are forever affected by their experience with the program. It is very hard to get these children out of your hearts once you have let them in. And you will let them into your heart, when you open up your home to them for six weeks."
It costs Project Children $650 to pay for each child's insurance and transportation, with most of the money coming from contributors and fund raisers. Host parents can choose the age, sex and religion of children they wish to host. Some choose to host more than one child and pair a Catholic with a Protestant child.
Fifty summers later
Andrew Phillips filed this piece in the spring of 1998, a few days either side of the Good Friday Agreement. The buses he describes were about to run through some of the most hopeful summers the scheme ever had.
The story behind it is a family one. Denis and Patrick Mulcahy, two brothers from Cork who had emigrated and joined the New York Police Department, started Project Children in 1975 after watching the violence in the North on the evening news. That first summer was small: six children, three Protestant and three Catholic, spent the season together in Greenwood Lake, New York. Nobody planned an empire.
It grew anyway. By the count published at its fiftieth anniversary, the project carried about 23,000 children from Ireland to American summers and drew on some 16,000 host families across the United States. The Lehigh Valley bus and the Sewell, N.J., households in this article were small parts of that number.
The children's summer programme ended in 2015. A second strand had already taken its place in the family's attention: an internship scheme, begun in 1995 with ten mature students a year, which brings Irish university students to work, live and volunteer in the United States. That part is still running.
The anniversary year, 2025, was marked on both sides of the Atlantic. In August Denis Mulcahy planted a tree at Greenwood Lake for the first six children of 1975. In September another tree went into the ground at Malone House in Barnett Demesne, Belfast, in honour of the local coordinators who matched children with families for four decades. A documentary on the scheme, How To Defuse A Bomb, was screened at Ulster University, and the project's archives were lent for a six-month display at the peace campus museum in Monaghan.
Reading Tim Butler's account of the bus ride back to JFK, we noticed how little he claims. He does not say the scheme ended the Troubles. He says the children talked more on the way home. That seems about right.
Questions readers ask
When did Project Children start and who founded it?
Project Children began in 1975. It was founded by Denis and Patrick Mulcahy, brothers from County Cork who had emigrated to the United States and served in the New York Police Department. The first summer involved just six children from Northern Ireland, three Protestant and three Catholic, who stayed together at Greenwood Lake in New York State.
How many children did Project Children bring to America?
Figures published for the scheme's fiftieth anniversary in 2025 put the total at about 23,000 children brought from Ireland to the United States, hosted by roughly 16,000 American families. In 1998 the organisation reported more than 4,000 members in more than 15 states, with children aged 10 to 14 staying six weeks each summer.
Does Project Children still run summer visits for Northern Irish children?
The children's summer exchange ended in 2015. The organisation continues through an internship programme that began in 1995, initially bringing ten mature students a year, and now places Irish university students with American employers for the summer so they can work, live and volunteer in the United States.
Why were the children brought over during the marching season?
The summer marching season in Northern Ireland, which peaks around the Twelfth of July, often brought protests, riots and road blockades in contested neighbourhoods. Project Children timed its six-week visits to take children away from that tension. In 1998 the scheme said it cost $650 per child to cover insurance and travel.
