GARDAÍ AND NYPD PARADE IN MONAGHAN MARKS HOMECOMING OF PROJECT CHILDREN TO PEACE CAMPUS

By Veronica Corr

The cultural partnership between Project Children and Monaghan County Council promised a spectacle never before witnessed in Monaghan and on Wednesday, October 7th it delivered, with a Transatlantic parade marking the launch of ‘The Project Children Stories: A legacy of peace lives on in Monaghan’ at the Peace Campus incorporating Monaghan County Museum. A total of 320 visitors made the sentimental journey from America, all of them possessing a connection to this remarkable programme, which changed the lives of everyone who took part. Project Children, a grassroots programme, the brainchild of Denis Mulcahy, brought children from both sides of the religious divide in Northern Ireland for six weeks each summer since 1975 to America to give them some respite from The Troubles.

Six children, three Catholics and three Protestants travelled that first year and it grew from there. When the programme in its original form ceased because of the Good Friday Agreement, 23,000 children had benefitted from it, thanks to 16,000 host families from across the United States and an army of volunteers who organised, fundraised, promoted and endorsed the programme. Denis, a Cork man, who became an American citizen and Police Officer with the Bomb Squad in New York City, felt moved to do something when he saw Northern Ireland dominate international headlines daily. So, he enlisted the help of his brother Pat and a group of friends. The Greenwood Lake Gaelic Cultural Society came into being and Project Children was born.

The legacy of that remarkable programme was launched on Wednesday evening in Monaghan, with loads of pomp and ceremony, as a permanent exhibition opened at the Peace Campus. Monaghan County Museum are also the proud custodians of the complete archive, donated by the Mulcahy brothers and Project Children Co-Founders Denis and Pat. Last week, just as this newspaper was going to press, music could be heard coming from The Diamond, Monaghan Town, where The Northern Standard office is located. It was a parade featuring An Garda Síochána’s Ceremonial Unit, the Garda…