Books: Story of Cork brothers whose work fostered peace in North

Long before politicians were sitting around negotiating peace, Catholic and Protestant children from Northern Ireland were sharing bedrooms, meals, holidays, and friendships in American homes.

What seemed an impossible feat for a society deeply scarred by conflict, turned into something quite miraculous.

The group behind this remarkable feat was Project Children, which marked its 50th anniversary last year.

The idea for the group was teased out around a kitchen table in New York, by Denis and Pat Mulcahy, brothers from Cork, and their wives.

Denis, originally from Rockchapel, emigrated to America in 1962 before joining the New York City Police Department in 1969.

He later became one of the driving forces behind Project Children, after he, his brother Pat, their families and friends were deeply moved by the television coverage of the violence unfolding in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and 1980s.

Wanting to do something practical for children caught in the middle of the conflict, they established the charity and began bringing Catholic and Protestant children to America for summer holidays.

For many of the children - more than 23,000 in total - those weeks offered a much-needed break from the violence and tension of everyday life during the Troubles.

Denis Mulcahy’s story is also about emigration.

Like so many Cork people before him, he left his home for America, building a new life there. He always followed the Irish news and he and his family watched on at the events unfolding in Northern Ireland from thousands of miles away.

Rather than simply watching, Denis and his family decided to act.

His Cork roots have always been important to him, and decades later he would return to the county to be recognised for the contribution he had made to peace and reconciliation in the North.

As you can imagine, there are so many stories, more than 23,000 stories, that could have been lost through the years.

It was imperative for the Project Children legacy to remember this important part of their past which changed many children’s lives.

The charity helped a generation of children see beyond the divisions they had grown up with.

For the six weeks that the children came to America, they weren’t simply holidays. Children were stepping into completely different homes and communities, meeting people from across the Atlantic Ocean, for the first time.

The American host families opened their doors to these children they had never met, while their parents in Northern Ireland waved off their children to a place thousands of miles away.

For some families, the relationship didn’t end when the plane came home.

As a child growing up in Derry, Jane Buckley knew about the children who went to America with Project Children, but she wasn’t one of them.

Decades later, she returned home after more than 30 years in London and began her own writing journey.

After writing a series of books in just two years, she was headhunted and commissioned to write Project Children The Legacy.

Buckley found herself asking what had happened to those children and whether their stories had been properly recorded. What followed was a four-year journey across Ireland and America to find them.

Project Children: The Legacy is a collection of stories and will be published in October, 2026.

The book specifically explores how many of the children sometimes became friends before even knowing whether they were Catholic or Protestant.

Buckley says: “Writing this book was never about me; it was about giving the children, families, and volunteers a permanent place in history.

“Every person I interviewed carried a different memory, but together they show how one simple idea from two Cork brothers crossed the Atlantic, quietly changed thousands of lives.

“If we don’t record those stories now, we risk losing an extraordinary part of Ireland’s peace story.”

Denis Mulcahy continues to maintain his connection with his native county. In August, 2023, he returned for a special homecoming and civic reception at Cork City Hall, where the then Lord Mayor described his work as a distinct Cork contribution to peace and reconciliation.

The visit also included a Cork screening of the award-winning documentary How To Defuse A Bomb: The Project Children Story and recognition by the County Cork B.P. & P. Association at its reunion in Douglas.

A 2015 New York Senate resolution also recognised Denis as a Cork-born Irish-American and highlighted Project Children’s work with youngsters and host families across the United States.

Project Children’s legacy has continued into a new generation of Cork students.

In 2023, Jack Fitzgerald, from Midleton, became the first UCC student to take part in a Project Children internship. The second-year Irish and Economics student travelled to the United States as one of 14 interns placed across New York, Pennsylvania and Colorado.

Who knew such a legacy would unfold more than 50 years later from a conversation around a kitchen table?

As the children become older, preserving their memories has become more important than ever.

Perhaps, the real legacy of Project Children is that sometimes peace doesn’t have to begin around a negotiating table, but with an open door and a family saying: “Come in, sit down, and what can we do to help?”

Project Children: The Legacy ensures that their voices, and those of the families who welcomed them, will not be forgotten.

Project Children:The Legacy is available to pre-order on www.oakleafpress.co.uk/product/the-project-children-story/