During one month usually July, a group of Irish teenages from Enniskillen travel to Cincinnati to stay with host families that have been preselected based on the age and gender of the participating host teen.  During the month the teens and families participate in a variety of activities designed to foster friendship and undestanding.

The Ulster Project is an international non-profit organization whose goals include:

1. To promote reconciliation between Northern Irish Catholics and Protestants by fostering tolerance, understanding, and friendship among teenage future leaders;
   
   
2. To present a program that brings Northern Irish teens of differing Christian faiths together in a strife-free atmosphere that emphasizes acceptance of all people, regardless of creed;
   
   
3. To educate and encourage persons, particularly supporters, committee members, and American Host Families, to appreciate their roles as peacemakers and mediators and to understand the purposes of Ulster Project;
   
   
4. To encourage Northern Irish leaders and clergy involved in the program to continue to foster the spirit of Ulster Project among the Northern Irish participants following each program;
   
   
5. To promote a spirit of community and commitment among American Ulster Project participants.

Stated simply the Ulster Project is an attempt to bring peace into our world one step at a time.


Participating families take part in numerous activities including :

1. Service Projects
2. Reds Games
3. City Tours 
4. Worship
5. Lots of Barbecues
6. Trips to Kings Island

The teens (both American and Irish) also take part in special Crossroads sessions.

The Crossroads Program is the most important element of Ulster Project Cincinnati. Crossroads is the serious part of the project and it is truly the reason for the project's existence. It is a time for reflection and introspection and the heart and soul of our program. The young people explore the nature of prejudice and what can be done to overcome it. they engage in a number of activities that teenagers enjoy in order to lay the groundwork and build buffers toward trust and friendship.

Although it is important that the teens come on time for all events, it is especially important that everyone attend the Crossroads program. During their time together they will examine issues including group membership, community team building and unity. They will also explore the disadvantages of group membership.

Crossroads provides an atmosphere to help the teens focus on their own strengths and to know and understand themselves better.

Following a 1916 uprising and years of guerrilla war led by the legendary Irish nationalist Michael Collins, the British government decided in 1920 to divide Ireland, which it had ruled as a colony for centuries. An independent state, the Republicof Ireland, was created in the island’s predominantly Catholic south, and the six Ulster counties in the north, with a Protestant majority, remained part of the United Kingdom. The conflict is both political and religious: Many Catholic “republicans” in Ulster have complained of being treated as second-class citizens, and they seek to unite Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland, but most Protestants want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. Almost 3,500 people on both sides have died since the Troubles began in 1969.
Courtesy of cfr.org

Loyalists want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom , and many are willing to support the use of violence to keep the Protestant-majority province, also known as Ulster , under British rule. They are the adversaries of the Irish Republican Army, and others who seek a united Ireland , in the violent decades-long struggle that the Irish call “the Troubles.” Young Protestant men from Ulster ’s most downtrodden neighborhoods make up the core membership of loyalist paramilitary groups, which are effectively pro-state terrorist organizations.
Courtesy of cfr.org

Historically, there were two main organizations: the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), founded in 1966 (and named for an early twentieth- century organization with the same mission), and the larger Ulster Defence Association (UDA), a network of vigilante groups founded in 1971. UDA members also use the name Ulster Freedom Fighters. The UVF and the UDA cooperated closely through the Combined Loyalist Military Command for much of the 1990s, but this association dissolved amid a violent feud in 2001.

Three hard-line offshoots have emerged from these groups in recent years: the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), in 1996, and the Red Hand Defenders and the Orange Volunteers, in 1998. Authorities believe the last two may simply be cover names used by UDA and LVF members conducting attacks.

In December 2001, the State Department listed four of these Protestant paramilitary organizations as terrorist groups, all except the Ulster Volunteer Force.
Courtesy of cfr.org