By Rita McInerney

Chris, Liam, Linda and Nuala have resumed their lives in divided Belfast, Northern Ireland, after six weeks of life Georgia-style with two families in the Stone Mountain area.

Chris Cotter and Liam (William) McBride, both 17 were part of the family of Ralph and Etta Nottoli, parishioners of Corpus Christi. Linda Evitt, 16, and Nuala O'Hare, 15, joined the family of Eugene and Jodie Harrison, members of Stone Mountain United Methodist Church.

The four were among 20 teenagers flying back to Ulster Aug. 18 after living six weeks with families in the Atlanta metropolitan area. They were brought here by Children's Committee 10, a non-profit group that's been providing a summer interlude away from the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland since 1982. Families in this area have taken part for the last three years.

A second non-profit group, the Children's Friendship Project of Northern Ireland, Inc., brought 20 teenagers to be guests of nine families from June 28 to Aug. 11. Each organization places a Catholic and Protestant youth with a sponsoring family. His summer experience gives the young people, many of whom live amid violence ignited by religious bigotry and economic inequality, an alternative.

Home for Chris, a mechanical engineer apprentice, is in a quiet neighborhood of West Belfast, not too far from the Shankill Road Protestant enclave often mentioned in news reports on the continuing troubles. His new friend Liam lives in the Falls Road section. Although only about a mile apart, the boys said, neither could venture onto the other's turf. Liam, apprenticed to a contractor, admitted that he flees to the home of a friend in a mixed area when violence erupts in the Catholic bastion of Falls Road where he lives with his family.

"There is not much you can do about it," both youths agreed of the mistrust and hostility which dictates the pattern of their lives. "It's been this way for 600 years," Liam added. Yet, their friendship bloomed in the friendly security of the Nottoli home. Here they were young lads laughing and joking together about the "weird" food Americans and the "No Smoking" inside the house rule enforced by their American hostess.

Susan Nottoli, 16, and her teenage friends gave them their cues on how to enjoy a "laid back" summer. Susan said it was usually a case of someone saying "Let's do something" each evening around 7. This could mean another visit to the Stone Mountain laser show, seeing a movie or going bowling. There were rafting trips and weekends at the family's house on Lake Oconee, including one crowded with swim team companions of Susan's from Woodward Academy.

For Chris, who attends St. Columba's, Church of Ireland congregation in West Belfast, the youth retreat the boys made at Corpus Christi was a wonderful new experience. At home, Liam works as a volunteer with youth groups organized by Father Matt Wallace, the Catholic priest who visited the Atlanta area with the young people last summer.

Now all of the teenagers have resumed lives colored with memories of Georgia where friendship has no boundaries and sidewalks aren't patrolled by armed soldiers.

The lads, while here, made plans to meet for club socializing on a Friday night, while the girls also had expectations for a reunion. All of the young people sponsored by the Children's Committee 10 and their parents will attend a get-together. Each teenager wrote to the parents of his or her companion during their six weeks here, and kept a daily diary to share with families and friends at home.

Chris and Liam said they socialize in mixed groups in Belfast. Both were strongly opposed to unity with the Republic of Ireland, saying they want no domination from Dublin. Each was strongly averse to entering politics as a way to bring about change. "There's just no way" he would become a politician, Christ insisted. Liam echoed his negativity.

Linda, an upholstery trainee, and Nuala, a student at a school run by the Sisters of Charity who likes to write and hopes to be a journalist, were more confident than the boys that they will be able to maintain their new friendship back in Belfast.

"There are lots of places to go together" in Belfast, they claimed. But their regular friends, both conceded, might make it hard for them to pursue the friendship if they knew about it. There is even the possibility, one ventured and the other agreed, that "I might get beat up."

Here, to their delight, "Everybody thinks we're sisters."

A highlight of their American vacation was a six-day visit to Fernandina Beach in Florida with the youth choir of the First United Methodist Church. A daily swim in the Harrison's pool was a habit they enjoyed.

This was the second summer the Harrisons welcomed Irish children. Last year they entertained two 12-year-old boys. They saw them on their own home ground in June when the family visited Northern Ireland.

The Ulster stop had its painful moments for Jodie Harrison beginning with first sight of the youthful (and homesick) British soldiers guarding the border with the Republic of Ireland. Seeing their young boys from last summer at the home of one and having to say goodbye again was hard. When she tried to learn why hatred and bigotry continue to divide the small country, she heard five different answers from as many people.

Etta Nottoli said she chose boys for the family's first involvement with the project because "they are the future leaders." In the same vein, John O'Kane, committee coordinator in the Stone Mountain area, said there are two major hopes which motivate those involved: that a significant leader will emerge from those who have experienced the freedom of American life, and that some of the youngsters will not be able to erase the good memories of a summer of living with someone from "the other side" and "somewhere down the road they might take a stand."

"The only thing we hear about in the newspapers is the sectarian violence," he said. "Some things are going on against tremendous odds. The church and peace groups keep plodding away," he said.