Ulster kids take holiday from violence // Chicago takes in 175

John McCann traveled thousands of miles to a strange placewhere he was expected to become part of a family of people he knewnothing about. The 12-year-old remembers getting off a plane inChicago and "just not knowing what to do."

John, with his shy smile and mischievous eyes, was one of 175children from strife-torn Northern Ireland who came here in a specialprogram designed to close the gap between Roman Catholics andProtestants.

This is the fifth year that the Irish Children's Fund, foundedby Robert and Diane O'Connor of Downers Grove, has brought childrenhere from Belfast and Londonderry for a six-week respite from theviolence they encounter at home.

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