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The Newsletter of Northern Ireland Children's Enterprise

     Northern Ireland Children's Enterprise achieved a major milestone recently when it completed the mortgage payments on its two facilities in Northern Ireland with an early payment of £59,400 ($92,288). Don and Mary Jo Murphy donated the funds to cover the early payment.
     The facility in Ballycastle was purchased in 1989, and expanded and renovated in 1997. In May 2002, it was dedicated as The Donal J. Murphy Center in recognition of the continuing contributions of NICE's founder and chairman. When NICE purchased its second facility in Belfast in 1998, it completed the transition from a summer holiday program to a 7-day a week enterprise facilitating meetings between thousands of children and adults from the two communities.

Don Murphy in Ballycastle

     The date has been set for our 2nd Annual Golf Tournament in Ireland. It will be held on Monday, May 19 at Luttrellstown Castle & Country Club in Castleknock, Co. Dublin. Thanks again to Trevor O'Rourke and the Dublin committee for securing a stunning location. Dating from the early 15th century, the castle is set in its own 560-acre estate. The course was set out in 1988 in a parkland setting with many mature trees and natural water features. You can take a virtual tour of the castle or get a 360 degree view of the golf course by visiting their website at www.luttrellstown.ie. Better yet, call Owenaok Travel and join us for the tournament and the ten-day golf tour.
     Our first tour was spearheaded by Don Parson, a member of our Board of Directors. He rounded up a great group of friends to tour through the east and north of Ireland, playing at Portstewart, Royal County Down, and both the Dunluce and the Valley Course at Royal Portrush. This year the group will head west, and play at Doonbeg, Lahinch, Tralee, Old Head, Waterville, Druids Glen, and the European Club. The tour will run from May 16 through the 25th.
     If you would like to join us, call Carla at Owenoak at (800) 426-4498 and tell her you'd like to join the NICE tour. It is a spectacular trip at a terrific price. Anyone booking before February 15th can take advantage of a fabulous price on Aer Lingus. But call soon, because space is limited to the first 32 reservations.

     Our first golf tournament at Olde Oaks Golf Club in Bossier City, LA was a great success. NICE was treated to an impressive dose of southern hospitality by the hard-working committee that had planned a two-day extravaganza jam packed with fun.
     Festivities began Monday night with dinner and an auction at the Boomtown Casino Hotel. Auctioneer Henry Dean was in rare form and the evening was terrific fun.

Hal Sutton and Carmel McCavana

     We are just beginning our search for host families for the summer of 2003. The children will be with us for five weeks this year. As always, we will be bringing an equal number of Catholic and Protestant boys and girls ranging in age from 9 to 12. We try to match the age and sex of our visitors with a child in the home of the host family.

Arrival day 2002 at JFK High School

     Two 19 year olds from Belfast were honored this summer for saving the life of a jet skier on Lake Mahopac. Terry McGuinness and David McHugh, both second-year college students, were staying at the home of Tom and Lynette Burns when the incident happened. Terry had stayed with the Burns family several years ago as a youngster, and had kept in touch with the family over the years. He and his friend were visiting while taking in the sights of New York for a week. Lynette asked her brother, Matthew Mager, to treat the boys to an afternoon of boating. At about 6:20 pm they spotted an unconscious man floating facedown on the water. They pulled the man from the water and revived him. Matthew's training in CPR was certainly helpful. They called for assistance, and stayed with him until he was transported to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. He had quite a large gash on the back of his head, cracked vertebrae, and a severe concussion. Medical personnel confirmed that with just a few seconds more in the water he would surely have died.
     In a ceremony at Town Hall, the two heroes received letters of commendation from Carmel police and Supervisor Frank Del Campo for their lifesaving effort.
     Lynette Burns said she was happy the town had honored the boys for their good deed. “Otherwise” she said, “they would get back home and folks would say they are just telling an Irish tale.”

    The tragedy of September 11 continues to affect all our lives in ways that will remain with us forever. All of us at NICE are deeply saddened by the loss of Lt. Vincent G. Halloran, one of our host fathers who died in the rescue attempt at the north tower of the World Trade Center. He had just celebrated his 20th year with the FDNY on 9/5/01.
     For several years, Lt. Halloran with his wife Marie had hosted children from Belfast. During the initial interview, he laughed that their home was already like a summer camp, so they would be happy to open it up to one more. The Hallorans have five sons: Jake, 16, Conor, 14, Aidan, 13, Kieran, 10, and Declan, 3. Their daughter, Phelan Marie, was born on May 17, 2002, their 16th wedding anniversary. She was christened on July 31, her father's 44th birthday. Marie asked that rather than presents for the baby, donations be made to NICE. Over $7,000 has been donated in memory of Lt. Halloran by his family and friends.      NICE will be honoring Lt. Halloran with a plaque that will be erected this spring at Australia House, our facility in Belfast. At the same time, our chairman in Northern Ireland, Paul McCrory, is planning the Halloran Basketball Tournament, with cross community teams from Newry, Derry and Belfast. The prize will be the Halloran cup, funded by The Uniformed Fire Officers Association in NY.

Summer 2001: Lt. Halloran with three of
his sons greet their returning visitor

     Our Northern Ireland Assembly has been in suspension since last October. This is the fourth time since the power-sharing Government was set up in 1998, after allegations that the IRA was involved in intelligence gathering at Stormont. This means we have direct rule from Westminster. The British Government has appointed several new ministers to take over the jobs that local politicians were doing. There is a real sense of frustration that the political process seems to take two steps backwards for every one forward.
     On the ground there are still daily sectarian clashes at interface areas as well as growing intimidation with many families and individuals targeted because they live in “the wrong place”.
     On a positive note our work in NICE continues to grow and flourish. We are in the process of writing our 2002 annual report. So much has happened in the last year that we are wondering what we can leave out so that the report doesn't become too heavy to carry!
     Dave Kennedy, one of our Youth Volunteers, has been selected to take part in this year's Future World Leader's Summit, to be held in Washington D.C. from March 22 to the 29th. Ten young people from Ireland have been selected to take part, and we are thrilled that NICE will be represented by Dave at this prestigious event. There will be participants from 38 countries. The students will receive unprecedented access to Washington's halls of power. They will visit their country's embassy and meet influential world leaders and White House staff. We look forward to Dave's report in the next edition of NICE Times.
     The highlight of my year was meeting Hal Sutton (with apologies to David Feherty!) and all the people involved in the Louisiana Golf Tournament. They nicknamed me the Yankee Irishwoman!! I discovered that Hal Sutton and I have something in common -not his magnificent driving- his pet hate on the golf course is slow play!!
     Thanks to all of you who continue to support us. You have an open invitation to visit us in Belfast and Ballycastle and see our work at first hand. On behalf of all of us involved in NICE in Northern Ireland I wish you peace and happiness for 2003.

Thanks once again to Fred McCarthy for his continued support of the NICE program. This year Fred designated NICE in his gift of $50,000 to the American Ireland Fund. He has done this consistently over the past three years, and we really appreciate it!

Best wishes to Mike Gibbons of Estee Lauder, the new president of the Ireland-U.S. Council. Mike has been a great supporter of NICE over the years. He was a co-founder of our annual golf tournament at Bear Lakes Golf Club in W. Palm Beach, FL, along with Pat Rooney and Joe & Eileen Cornacchia. We look forward to congratulating him in person on February 10 at Bear Lakes!

Felicia Taylor with NICE friends

We were delighted to hear from the students at Rye Country Day School, who are working to sponsor a child from Northern Ireland this summer. The members of the Irish American Culture Club have been holding bake sales and other fundraising events to raise enough to pay for airfare and medical insurance for one child from Belfast this summer. Thanks to all the students, and good luck to their efforts!

Our first golf tournament at Olde Oaks in Louisiana was a great success.
Thanks to everyone on the committee for all their hard work.
Pictured above, from left: Willie Joe Greene, Colette Greene, Henry Dean and Bill Fields.

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