Ulster Project in Arlington works to form alliances for teens from Northern Ireland
Posted Saturday, Jul. 10, 2010
By HILARY COLLINS
hcollins@star-telegram.com
ARLINGTON -- Teens from a torn society are spending a month in Texas to learn how to build a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.
It's all part of the Ulster Project, a cause masterminded by an Anglican priest to try to bridge the divide between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.
"We promote peace through team-building and try to show tolerance, patience and that everyone has their differences but they can work through them," said Liza Hawrylak, president of Arlington's branch of the Ulster Project.
Ulster Project Arlington has hosted teens from Belfast every year since 1994. This year there are eight Protestants and eight Catholics, each denomination split with four boys and four girls.
"Some of the girls were saying that this project was the first time they've ever spoken to a Catholic or spoken to a Protestant," said Anna McBurney of Belfast.
She is 15 and Protestant, as is her host teen, Chandler Harrell of Arlington.
Each year, 16 teens are chosen and matched with 16 host families with a child of the same sex, religious views and age group, Hawrylak said.
The Irish teens go through an even more competitive screening process because the project's popularity makes it difficult to land a spot.
"Once I heard I got into it, I started getting really excited," said Conor Fitsimons, 15 and Catholic, of Belfast.
In Northern Ireland, Protestant and Catholic mean more than just creeds. They are the names assigned to each side of a conflict that has split the nation since the 12th century, when the Protestant British took over Catholic Ireland.
While progress has been made -- in the 1990s both sides began a peace process -- Northern Ireland still struggles with a split identity, and some say that "a kind of de facto segregation" has actually increased, said David R.C. Hudson, a professor at Texas A&M University. He grew up in the United Kingdom and now specializes in British and Irish history.
The Ulster Project is trying to combat the conflict by selecting what Hawrylak calls "Ireland's future leaders" and exposing them to the other side -- something that doesn't always happens in Northern Ireland.
They have already visited the Boys & Girls Clubs of Arlington, hosted a picnic for the Arlington Life Shelter, and spent a day at Six Flags. They have more fun and charity events coming up, including a three-day trip to Amarillo to visit Cadillac Ranch.
Throughout the month the teens participate in what they call "Times of Discovery," confidential meetings led by a counselor.
"I think the main thing for Northern Irish guys is to promote religious unity for the younger generation," said Graham Tedford, 23, a Protestant counselor from Bangor.
Tedford and his older brother both went through the project as teens, and Tedford gives the experience at least partial credit for a wedding next month: His older brother is marrying a Catholic girl.
"I have to believe that given the sheer commitment of so many parties ... and the determination to move beyond the past, the future is going to be better," Hudson said.
The Irish teens head back to Belfast on July 25, a space marked on the calendar as a "Tearfest."
But they will head home equipped with new confidence and lifelong friendships.
"We can go home and introduce our friends to each other and then everybody will be able to mix all together," McBurney said.
HILARY COLLINS, 817-390-7416
