[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 24 (Tuesday, March 8, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 8, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
              STATEMENT IN SUPPORT OF ``PROJECT CHILDREN''

                                 ______


                          HON. JAMES P. MORAN

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 8, 1994

  Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, 20 years ago in Greenwood Lake, NY, Denis 
Mulcahy of County Cork, Ireland, began Project Children. Mulcahy's aim 
was to reach out to the citizens of Northern Ireland who are not only 
most hurt by the violence, but who also have the best chance to end 
it--the children.
  Over the past two decades, Project Children has brought to America 
over 8,000 Protestant and Catholic children aged 10 to 14 years for 6 
week summer vacations. These children are Northern Ireland's most 
tragic victims. The coordinators at Project Children seek to include 
the Irish youth who are most at risk--they live in the worst 
neighborhoods, they have seen the worst violence, their parents are 
unemployed, or even incarcerated. If these children can be removed for 
even a short time, placed together, both Protestant and Catholic, in a 
peaceful environment and then given the opportunity to intermingle, 
Project Children believes they will take these lessons of harmony back 
home with them to Ireland.
  Project Children has no political agenda and no paid staff. American 
families provide, at their own expense, homes for the children while 
they are in the United States and Project Children pays the children's 
traveling expenses and health/accident insurance. Recently, a new 
undertaking, Project Children Together, has been established which 
gives the children an opportunity to get together back home in Northern 
Ireland both before and after their tip to the States. It is Project 
Children Together which provides the ongoing framework for the 
friendships made in the States to flourish. It is my hope that these 
friendships will build a better future for Northern Ireland.
  Thus, I would like to pay tribute to all of those who have been 
involved with Project Children. I salute the tireless efforts of those 
who have organized these trips for thousands of children, I salute the 
generosity of the American families who have opened their homes in an 
effort to help these children. The success of Project Children is a 
testimony not only to its organizers ad participants, but also to the 
effort to win peace in Northern Ireland.

                          ____________________