It was the trip of a lifetime. A Boeing 747 filled with 500 children from the north and a dozen or so chaperones flying to New York for six weeks of sun, swimming, picnics, amusement parks and sightseeing. At a time when the news was filled with shootings and bombings and when going anywhere meant checkpoints and security searches, Project Children offered a glimpse of a different world.
I was number 6 according to the badge that came in the post and the luggage tag along with it. It had the Project Children logo, my name, and Bloomfield written on it. When I got the airport to take my first ever flight and we were lined up, I realised numbers 1-10 were all teenagers and the other 490 were around 9 to 11 years old.
As we boarded the Aer Lingus plane in number order, the flight attendant directed the first 10 of us upstairs. Upstairs on a plane... We were met by two US immigration officers who handed us a shoebox of passports and a bundle of customs forms each, which we proceeded to fill out with the details of everyone on board. I might have had to work for the first couple of hours of the flight, but I was in first class and away from the madness in the main cabin. It felt very grown up.
Project Children, however, gave me unrealistic expectations of future air travel.
This was just one of the memories that came back to me as I was watching Fionnuala Kennedy's play which was performed in Belfast last week as part of Féile an Phobail.
The play by Brassneck Theatre Company, directed by Tony Devlin, showcases the experiences of Rachel, James, Bernadette and several other children who took part in the programme. It also tells us about the challenges faced by Denis and Patrick Mulcahy in establishing the programme in Greenwood Lake, New York with just $50 and a good idea.
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But it was through the play's portrayal of Belfast-based Project Children volunteers Sally Brennan and Monica Culbert that we see just how significant the challenges were in convincing parents that this was something they should allow their child to do and in ensuring those who would benefit the most from the programme had the chance to take part.
Taking part in the post-performance discussion with Monica and Sally and Michael Culbert Jr, who had also been on the programme, was an opportunity to reflect on some of my own experiences and how my life had been shaped by the programme. I joked on the night that the aim of Project Children was to give children a respite from the conflict, but it was, in fact, my mother who had six weeks respite from teenage me.
Until I lived in a two-parent household with Pat and Joe Barry in New Jersey, I never realised how much parenting my mother had had to do by herself, caring for and raising six children aged 3 to 16 at the time of my father's death. Having someone else look after me for the summer meant there was one less person for her to worry about for that period of time and it really did make a difference.
As well as that, I got to see a functioning democracy in action. Joe Barry was a City Councilman and I attended a council meeting with him where there was no shouting or personal abuse and where reasoned debate and the best interests of the community were paramount.
The contrast could not have been greater than just two months previously, when my brother Lughaidh had been elected to Magherafelt District Council, and at the first meeting he and his party colleagues were attacked with chairs and fists from the unionist benches when Lughaidh was elected vice-chair. I still have a vivid memory of the late John Davey bleeding from a head wound as he emerged from the council offices. That would have been unthinkable in Bloomfield.
The Project Children programme was an insight into what was possible. Many participants came from homes where university wasn't something that was discussed, but they saw the possibilities afforded by continuing their education because of their American host families and the value they placed upon it.
Others kept close ties to their host families over the years, myself included, and had that network of support throughout their lives. Some returned to the United States to work and live and some, like me, came back home after a few years. America gave me the tools to do things that I would not have otherwise been able to do.
That was the success of Project Children. It was a simple idea that, when executed well, afforded so much hope and opportunity.
I truly hope that Brassneck Theatre can bring the play to the United States. It is a historical narrative perfectly captured in art form and the host families deserve to see how they created 23,000 ambassadors for change.
