A Grand Plan in Action

It was while in Chicago that they read an article about an organization that made it possible for foreign children — many of them under-privileged — to come to the United States in the summer and live with host families. Being devout Christians with a deep sense that they were put on this earth to do something more than simply earn a living, the O’Connors started the Irish Children’s Fund, and later, the Northern Ireland Children’s Fund. They felt it was their calling to do something to ameliorate the cruel segregation between the Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland, specifically in the inner cities. There the neighborhoods are walled off with separate schools, shopping areas and parks.