Don't just take our word for it...
From the Father of a Northern Irish Teen
"Our daughter has just returned from this year's very successful Ulster Project and we would like to pass on our sincere thanks and gratitude for all that our Texan friends did to make the trip such a wonderful and beneficial experience. She had such a fabulous experience as I am sure all the teens had and I know that it will live with her a very long time. The website was fantastic - we checked the photos every day! All of those involved in putting the photos on the website everyday deserve a round of applause for all their hard work!!! It was wonderful for us to see how everyone was getting on. Before ...she... went to Texas we knew very little about the state, but since ..her... visit we are avid Texas fans and have looked up lots of facts about the state on the internet!
Could you please pass on our thanks to all involved in The Ulster Project - the committee, parents, helpers - anyone who helped make it such a success.
We wish everyone good luck and best wishes for the future of the project - it is very worthwhile and if we can help in anyway this side of the Atlantic we will. We will always remember our Texan friends and if any of you are ever in Northern Ireland we would love the opportunity to return your wonderful hospitality and friendship. God bless."
From a Northern Irish Methodist Minister
"...when a young person is selected for the project they are lifted out of their segregated educational system and begin to meet and have fun with young people from across the divide to prepare for the journey. Second, their multicultural experience in the US broadens their outlook on life and the world. Third, and perhaps the best benefit of all, is that after their return to Ireland, the friendship across the ethnic lines and political divide continue naturally for many years....many for life, thus further developing goodwill of lasting quality."
From the Mother of a Northern Irish Teen
"M" was so full of excitement and conversation - he just couldn't wait to fill us in on all of the experiences that he had had over the last month. We listened and listened with joy - it is so good to hear your child describe what has obviously been a real life changing experience. Claire said to me that evening "he has changed, but it's just like he's even more "M" than he used to be". I think for me it's as though he has had a really positive reinforcement of who he is and it has given him the confidence to just be himself.
"M" told me that he definitely felt like he was a better person - he had learnt to look at people and concentrate on the parts of them that he liked and minimize the parts that were negative. As we talked to him during the evening the strength of the bonds that he has developed this summer with many, many people (because it goes so much further than just the other teens) became more and more evident.
From Conor & Jamie: Two Northern Irish Teens
Conor n’ Jamie
Before we start, I ask you to ponder which of us is Protestant and which is Catholic. In Northern Ireland it makes a difference.
Jamie: I remember sitting in a strange unknown environment surrounded by hundreds of similar faces. I decided to keep my head down as I had forgotten most of my forms. The next 15 minutes went by in a haze of boredom. Then we chivied into a classroom with 17 other then strangers. These people meant nothing to me as I silently judged them. How wrong I was.
Conor: My first memories are similar to his, yet I never once met Jamie. Instead, I was in a classroom down the corridor in a room full of strangers, one of which stood up at the front, had ginger hair and was quite mental. It was only 1 month ago but some of the people in that room are my best friends and I’m very glad I’ve met them. However, I still hadn’t met Jamie and I wouldn’t yet for a few months.
Jamie: On to our first meeting (still no Conor). We went to the greatest pavilion of all time. It was bowling. Little did I know Conor was in the odyssey as well. Another example of even though he was meters away we would never have met. I don’t have lots of memories about that night. Apart from the 3,000 seats as I judged them, who turned up to get into a club that held only 200. That was a lot more interesting than the meeting.
Conor: My memories at the first few meeting that I had were different from Jamie’s. I knew instantly that this would be an unbelievable experience from the way the group just clicked. I was happy at those meetings and no part of me thought what would happen one Saturday when I was told that a group that worked so hard and had become so close would split up. I could talk for hours about that night but I’m not going to. But I would like to thank Joe McNamee and Jude Pollock for everything they did for that St. Louis group. At this point I knew I was going to Arlington, but I didn’t really know where I was going from here.
Jamie: The first time I met Conor was not person to person but as 6 new people entered our group. It was a mixed bag of emotions. At first I thought it was a bad thing. I thought here that it would be frustrating but on the flip side I got to meet new people including Conor. Throughout the next few meetings, Conor remained anonymous to me. We was at the meeting, we just didn’t really talk a lot. All I can remember is that he played the guitar and played it well. When the date of departure grew ever closer so did my friendship with Conor. We started off tentatively at first I suppose, just extending formalities, names etc. We had one obvious difference: religion…one being a Protestant and one being Catholic. Due to this fact in Northern Ireland we would probably have never met. Yet through a strange set of coincidences, we did. Or maybe it was meant to be.
Conor: If it was frustrating for Jamie, it was even more so for me. Coming into a group with its cliques already established and its members nervous to speak to me throughout those early meetings. Jamie and me had little contact with each other. All we had was a nod at the head and an exchange of names; it wasn’t much to go by.
Jamie: Our first serious conversation was then about the one sport that unifies Northern Ireland, Football. We spoke about an hour on the subject, especially United’s wonder recovery from 3-0 down to recover 5-3. What a day for all the reds, no matter their religion. That was our first real conversation; the roots of friendship were tagged.
Conor: Through out the next weeks, we began to find the similarities and the subjects that brought us together. And having known nothing of each other a few months before I can safely say that there is no person I’d rather be stuck in a an airplane with.
Jamie: When we arrived at Dallas, I remember the tiny space between the plane and the tunnel when we got our first taste of the heat. Over the next few weeks our conversations and activities varied greatly from the profound to the not so profound. Any of the guests of the household that night can testify to that. But gradually we grew to be very good friends.
Conor: I am Conor, I am 15 years old and I am Catholic. I go to a Catholic school full of other Catholic kids. I play soccer and hurling, a predominantly Catholic sport. I’ve learned to judge people on who they are. I learned to trust that crazy ginger haired woman with my life.
Jamie: I am Jamie. I am 15 years old. I am Protestant. I play soccer and hockey, a primarily Protestant sport. I didn’t know many Catholics and certainly wasn’t friends with any. How that has changed.
Despite being so similar we would never ever have met. Despite being so near each other, so we arrive at this point, 30 seconds before the closing ecumenical service, sitting in a Protestant church scribbling down the last of the reflections together.
Conor: At the end of this, I know he is Protestant.
Jamie: I know he is a Catholic.
Together: In Northern Ireland that matters and makes a difference, but we both don’t care!