BY PRISCILLA GREEAR

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--Conan McGale and Judith Breen come from the town of Omagh in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, where Protestants and Catholics live in separate areas, play sports apart, attend different schools and do not understand one another's faith.

McGale, a Catholic boy, chose to participate in the Ulster Project in Atlanta during July to become more familiar with Christians who are Protestant. Breen, a Protestant girl, took part to make new friends, experience America and leave her homeland.

The Ulster Project is a four and a half week trip to the U.S. for youth from Northern Ireland begun by Canon Kerry Waterstone of the Church of Ireland in 1975. The program this year brought 22 groups of Irish teens ages 14 to 16 to cities where they were matched with American host families with a teenager. The project fosters peace and understanding between Protestant and Catholic teens, to lay a better foundation for the future in Northern Ireland where the two groups have had a history of continual conflict.

Both 15-year-olds from a quiet town of 30,000, 70 miles west of Belfast, said at the end of their Atlanta stay that they had developed a greater respect for the differences between and within Catholic and Protestant churches in the U.S. and Ireland.

"(The trip) made me learn to respect other religions. We can live in peace. We don't always have to be fighting," said McGale.

While his parents are not prejudiced and have Protestant friends, he said he was influenced by the media and his peers to regard Protestants as enemies with incorrect beliefs and feels pressure to conform to this attitude.

After spending a few weeks with Protestant teens in the Ulster Project he said, "They're very similar to us. We have a lot in common. . .We like the same music. We like to enjoy ourselves."

Sara Miller, a Presbyterian whose family hosted Breen, observed that the Irish teens did discuss and defend their own faith traditions, but Breen never discredited Catholicism.

The Irish teens described American society as more open than their own and saw differences between American and Irish church practices within their own denominations.

Catholic services in North Georgia have more music, singing and congregational participation, McGale said, and Breen described American Protestant ministers as friendlier than those in Ireland.

"It's like they would be having a conversation with you--not. . .just preaching a sermon," she said.

Breen says little tension exists between Protestants and Catholics in Omagh, but the groups are segregated and she has virtually no interaction with Catholics.

The Ulster Project "taught me more respect for the other religion--to appreciate that because they are different it doesn't mean what they believe is wrong," she said. "I don't think they're really that different."

The teens also said they had great fun meeting daily for group activities including sorting food at a food bank, visiting Six Flags and a Braves game, swimming and house-boating on Georgia lakes, and participating in Catholic and Protestant worship services.

"We've really only known each other for three weeks and feel like we've known each other forever," Miller said.

An opening ecumenical ceremony was held at All Saints Catholic Church in Dunwoody with visiting ministers from St. Martin of the Fields Episcopal Church, St. Luke's Presbyterian Church, St. Patrick's Episcopal Church and Dunwoody Methodist Church. The teens also gathered at the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Atlanta to serve food at St. Francis Table and attended Mass at St. Lawrence Church in Lawrenceville.

While both teens show interest in becoming better acquainted with members of the other denomination, each is actively involved in their own religious activities. McGale studies at a Christian Brothers school and attends Sacred Heart Church where he is a member of the youth club and plays Gaelic football. Breen attends a Protestant grammar school, Omagh Academy, is a member of the Church of Ireland and is active in a youth group where she plays badminton, hockey and football.

Rivalry has existed and fighting has occurred between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland for several hundred years. Great Britain has governed Northern Ireland for 76 years and fighting developed from a desire among Catholics for the Irish government to regain control of the region. The latest fighting between the Catholic Irish Republican Army and the Protestant Ulster Volunteer Force and other paramilitary groups began in 1969 and a cease fire was called in 1996.

While divisions and violence still exist, signs of goodwill and increased understanding are developing in Northern Ireland. Other youth projects similar to the Ulster Project exist and Drumagh Integrated College was founded two years ago which teaches both Catholic and Protestant youth. Catholic youth play in Breen's Protestant badminton club.

McGale says he hopes that Ulster Project members can set an example with friends by sharing an attitude of tolerance upon their return to Omagh.