Taoiseach Leo Varadkar will today officially launch a new cultural partnership between Monaghan County Council and Project Children. The partnership will see a unique archive of images, interviews and footage documenting the Organisation's work over the past half a century find a home in the County at the new Peace Campus. Along with the archive, the Council is in the early stages of working with Project Children to plan a major series of exhibitions, events and programmes to mark the 50th anniversary of this transformative project in 2025. Project Children was started by bothers Denis and Patrick Mulcahy and others in 1975.
Speaking on today's Joe Finnegan Show, Denis said that the project was started after he watched "too many" news accounts of violence in Northern Ireland. Denis and Patrick reasoned that if Protestant and Catholic children could spend time together in an environment that was not toxic with war, they would be less likely as adults to hurl bombs at each other, and Project Children was born. That first summer in 1975, they brought 6 children, 3 Protestant and 3 Catholic, to spend the summer in New York State. Over the intervening years, the project expanded to see over 23,000 children from Northern Ireland travel to the United States to experience life in a different environment, a peaceful place. Spanning across 22 states, the program enlisted the help of over 16,000 host families to deliver the volunteer run program across the US.
The compelling story of Project Children will be shown at the Garage Theatre in Monaghan this evening 6pm. There will be a pre-show reception with light refreshments where guests will have the opportunity to meet and speak with Project Children Chairman and co-founder Denis Mulcahy. The screening will begin at 7pm.
