Denis Mulcahy

In 1975, two Cork-born brothers and NYPD cops, Denis and Patrick Mulcahy, horrified by the violence in Northern Ireland, decided they needed to help.

They reasoned that if they could help children from both Catholic and Protestant backgrounds spend time together in a safe and peaceful environment, the children would realise they were more similar than they were different, and this would lead to less violence in the future.

That year, they brought over six Catholic and Protestant children from Northern Ireland to spend the summer in America.

Project Children

The programme they started is called Project Children, and 49 years later, the programme has brought more than 23,000 children over to America to spend the summer.

Today, it runs as an internship project for older students, who come to America to spend their time working, living, and giving back to the community.

Nobel Peace Prize

Amongst many awards and accolades, as well as a documentary about the project called How To Defuse A Bomb - The Project Children Story, Denis Mulcahy has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize for his and the team’s work contributing to the peace process in Northern Ireland.

Mulcahy emigrated to America at 17, and after time in the military he went on to be part of the NYPD Bomb Squad for much of his career.

Expansion of the programme

For most of that time, he has also been running Project Children. He explains of the programme: “We started with six kids and that was a huge success. We were eventually filling 747s, which had 468 seats. Several years we brought two planes. The kids lived with host families, and we tried to mix Protestant and Catholic kids.”

Presidential Distinguished Service Award

Mulcahy says it’s an honour to have been awarded the Presidential Distinguished Service Award and to be recognised by Ireland for the hard work he, and all the people who have helped, have put into the project.

“We never had time to raise our profile, or shout about what we were doing. We were too busy working. At the start, I used to sell $50,000 worth of $1 raffle tickets to raise money,” he says.

Grassroots approach

He says that people were always willing to help out, no matter the economy, and that the programme was lucky that it depended on small, grassroots fundraisers and individual contributions.

“It takes everybody, from the big donors to the little old lady who gives $5. Community support meant no matter what happened with the economy, we were capable of getting through. That meant a lot,” he says.

Monaghan Peace Campus

Project Children will celebrate 50 years in 2025, and the project will have a permanent home for its archive by then at the new Monaghan Peace Campus.

The Monaghan Peace Campus will have a library, museum and events space and Project Children will mark their 50-year milestone there in Autumn 2025.

Mulcahy is excited about what’s to come, and eager to celebrate the achievements of everyone who has contributed to Project Children, from the volunteers and host families in the US, to the children and their families in Belfast.

Mulcahy is especially proud of all the children who took part, and what they have gone to achieve. “It’s amazing what grew out of it, and the contribution these children have made to the peace process. They were given an opportunity, and they jumped at it.”