FOR nearly half a century, the Ulster Project has united Catholic and Protestant teenagers across the North, through friendship, understanding and shared experiences in the United States.
To mark the project’s anniversary, a special service took place in Enniskillen on Saturday.
Past members of Enniskillen Ulster Project joined clergy at St. Macartin’s Cathedral, before crossing to attend mass at St. Michael’s Church, with refreshments then offered at the Cathedral Hall.
The Project was founded in 1975 by Rev Stephen Kent Jackson of the US Episcopal Church and Rev Kerry Waterstone of County Down.
It began as a modest experiment in cross-community youth work and has since evolved into a transatlantic network for peace and understanding.
Its main goal remains to bring Protestant and Catholic teens together to break down sectarian stereotypes and learn that, though they may disagree, their opinions matter.
Each July, under the sponsorship of American Ulster Projects, groups of Northern Irish teenagers – half Catholic, half Protestant, and evenly divided by gender – travel to US cities such as Cincinnati, Ohio; Madison, Indiana, Nashville and Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Ogden, Utah.
They stay with host families who have a child of the same age and similar interests, sharing homes, conversations, and perspectives that change lives on both sides of the ocean.
Accompanied by adult counsellors, participants aged 14 to 16 are carefully selected for their leadership potential, with some centres receiving five or six times more applicants than places available. Many later return as counsellors themselves, continuing the cycle of understanding and service.
Decades on, the Ulster Project continues to show that peace begins with personal connection and that understanding truly knows no borders.
