A play about a ground-breaking cross-Atlantic initiative – which over four decades brought over 23,000 children away from the war-torn streets of Northern Ireland to the United States during the Troubles – is set for its U.S. debut in 2024.
"Project Children," by Belfast playwright Fionnuala Kennedy, premiered in Belfast in the summer to great acclaim. Plans are now afoot to bring it to the U.S. in October.
During her research about the actual Project Children initiative, Fionnuala interviewed people who went out to the U.S. as children to be hosted by U.S. families, as well as those who organised the visits.
“When you interview people who have had this same experience, even though their stories are different because they went to different parts of America, you felt there was a common thread.
"What was it like as a child leaving your family? What was the airport like? How did your family feel? How did you feel leaving? What was it like when you landed? And you were getting replies like, you want to see the size of cars and the hamburgers – but you can’t do a play about the size of the hamburgers.
“But what became really clear to me was what the children were leaving behind. They were talking about someone who had been shot dead and I realised that we had all been de-sensitised by what had happened and we had normalised the war.
"People never think that their story is interesting, but I felt that what they were leaving was really interesting and what they were coming back to and how it had changed them. It really did make an impact on people and shaped their futures for good or for bad sometimes.”
Belfast women Monica Culbert and Sally Brennan’s characters are the narrators of the play. Monica and Sally were instrumental in getting the project off the ground on the Irish side of the Atlantic and worked tirelessly with Denis Mulcahy from New York, who founded the project back in 1975 after watching footage on TV of the horrors of the conflict on the streets of Belfast and Derry.
Fionnuala said that bringing the play to the States – which will also be back at The Lyric Theatre in Belfast in April – is funding dependent.
Fionnuala said: “First of all we would really like to bring the play out for Denis so that he can see it and we want to go to the families who hosted the children.
“My sister’s American family flew over for the play (in Belfast). A lot of the older people who hosted children back in the day have passed away. But their children were there and were part of it, and their own children know all about it. That’s who we want to bring it to.
“All being well we’re hoping to go to Upstate New York, New Jersey, Boston and Washington. It will be like giving something back.”
