Still building bridges... man who gave 23,000 local kids a break from Troubles in US
THE man behinds a programme that took thousands of children from here to America during the Troubles says he is “proud” of a new scholarship in his family’s name that will bring American students to this side of the Atlantic.
Retired NYPD bomb squad detective Denis Mulcahy founded Project Children with his brothers John and Pat in 1975.
For four decades local youngsters were taken to the US to stay with American families for six weeks during the summer.
In total, 23,000 children aged 10 or 11 years crossed the Atlantic to temporarily escape the Troubles before the scheme ended. An intern programme founded by the organisation for university students is still running.
Cork native Denis accompanied US President Bill Clinton on his historic trip to Northern Ireland in 1995, and was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
He received an OBE, and the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad from Irish President Michael D Higgins.
Now a New York community centre has created the Mulcahy Family Scholarship to allow American high school students to attend summer camps in Ireland.
The scheme, which will offer
students the chance to experience cultural, arts, sports and educational programmes, is expected to expand across the border once funding has been secured.
The first student travelled to Galway this summer, and the official launch of the scholarship will take place at a two-day event attended by 200 schoolchildren from here next week.
“The Mulcahy Family Scholarship was founded by the Aisling Community Centre in New York, and it is aimed at kids in the third year of high school,” said Denis.
“I have been on the board of the centre for over 20 years, and they felt it was time to do a reverse role of Project Children.
“We teamed up with the Celtic Irish American Academy in Galway and we had one student over this summer, 17-year-old Conor James.
“We hope to increase our numbers and to build links with organisations in Northern Ireland so we can start sending students there, too, depending on funding.
“The kids on the scholarship will come over for two weeks and they will be aged 16 to 17 years old.
“They will come back and have one more year left (of school), so they will be able to tell their friends about their experiences.
“They will stay with local families, which I think was one of the reasons why Project Children succeeded.
“We started Project Children with just six kids in the first year — three from the Protestant community, three from the Catholic community — and at its height we chartered two 747s to bring over more than 900 children.
“I hope that this scholarship will strengthen links between America and Ireland and help American students experience Irish culture.”
Denis admits that he was “sad” to close Project Children in 2015 after 40 years.
“When I started in 1975 with just six kids, the Troubles were bad and it took an incredible amount of courage,” he recalled.
“Every time you turned on the news it was about Northern Ireland.
“A group of us thought that bringing them over in the summer holidays, during the marching season, would provide a safe environment. The kids were 10 or 11 years old and for them to travel 3,000 miles took incredible courage on their part, and on the part of their parents.
“It was quite sad to close it after 40 years, but I feel that social media really put us out of business — kids were coming over texting on their phones or Face Timing home. And I wasn’t sure that the need was there any more.
“But the intern programme for university students is still going strong.”
On November 14 and 15, Denis will travel from New York to the Republic for the two-day launch of the scholarship programme at the Garage Theatre in Monaghan town.
The event will feature screenings of the documentary How To Defuse A Bomb: The Project Children Story narrated by Liam Neeson, and will be attended by children from four schools here.
Denis says he is hoping to make contact with organisations in Northern Ireland who would be prepared to support the scholarship in the future.
“It is very early stages, but I am sure there are the type of programmes we are looking for in Northern Ireland on the history and culture of the country,” he continued.
“We would like to split it equally between the North and the South. We hope that the new project will be the legacy of Project Children.”
We hope that the new scheme will be the legacy of Project Children