Do you know this girl? Irish woman looking for P.E.I. host family
Host sisters Nancy and Rebecca would now be in their 40s
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- Julie Holland has been reconnected with her host family.
Julie Holland of Belfast is hoping to connect with the P.E.I. family that hosted her for four weeks in the summer of 1987.
Holland, then known by her maiden name Julie Downey, took part in a program that brought 12 children from Northern Ireland — six Catholics and six Protestants — to P.E.I.
She's 43 now, but was 12 at the time of the trip.
"It was absolutely amazing, it was the best time of my life," she said, describing going to the theatre to the first time to see Anne of Green Gables, and then a trip to see the Green Gables house.
She knows her host family had two daughters — Nancy and Rebecca — who would now be about 46 and 40, and she believes their parents names were Coral and Peter.
Other than that, she doesn't have enough details to find them.
Troubles at home
The year Holland came to P.E.I. during what is known in Northern Ireland as The Troubles — a 30-year period of violence that split the country politically and religiously.
"It was hard in Belfast because you had the Protestants and the Catholics that were fighting each other so you couldn't really go out of your area where you lived," she explained.
"People were being shot on a daily basis, people were being shot dead."
Regarding her time on P.E.I., she remembers going to play tennis with her host sister Nancy, then about 16. Nancy's mother dropped them off at the courts, but didn't come to pick them up so Nancy suggested walking home.
"I just burst into tears, I was terrified, and I just remember her saying to me, 'Julie, this isn't Belfast.' And it was like we couldn't walk anywhere in Belfast, we were petrified to go anywhere," she said.
"She was right, it wasn't Belfast, and the longer I was there the more I got used to the pace … and the fact that you could speak to everybody and you could go anywhere you want."
In the middle of religious tensions
One of the goals of the trip was to bridge the gap between Catholics and Protestants — at least among the participants.
Holland is a Catholic, but her mother was a Protestant before marrying her father. She recalls making early visits to her mother's family.
"When we would go we had to be very careful," she said.
She was told to call her brother "Robert" around Protestants, even though his name was Patrick, so as not to give them away as Catholics.
"I remembered just being so scared everywhere we went, because I was afraid of saying his name wrong," she said. "I was used to seeing Protestants, but I wasn't used to being able to go with my own age."
Attempts to make connections
The 12 children stayed in touch for a while after the trip — she said they only lived a few minutes from each other — but the friendship wasn't able to withstand the political climate.
"When we came back, we did meet up with each other for a wee bit, but it turned bad," she said, saying other people found out about the meetings.
"It turned into a fight where they all [the others] came out on to the streets and everybody throwing stones at each other and everything else, and we never seen them again after that."
Though The Troubles ended in the late 90s, Holland said there are still some tensions, but things have improved for the most part.
"I've got a son of 10 and my son knows nothing about Catholics and Protestants," she said. "Belfast is like a new place. It's beautiful. It's a lovely place to grow up. I love Ireland."
Hoping to reconnect
Holland said she hadn't used social media until this past year, and that it opened her eyes to the possibilities of connecting with people from her past.
Now, she is trying to reconnect with her host family.
"I just haven't got enough information to go on," she said. "I just wish with all my heart that I could get in contact with them. I've thought about them for years and years. They've never been far from my thoughts."
She remembers picking berries and her host mother using them to make homemade jam. Holland still gets nostalgic when she eats toast and jam.
Among other details she remembers, Holland said Nancy would have a summer birthday because she remembers celebrating her turning 16.
She doesn't remember where on the Island they lived, although she remembers it was a short drive from the airport and near a mall, and that they lived in a detached house with a big front yard with a mailbox at the end of it.
She said she would like to thank them, and would like to know how they are doing and how their lives turned out.
Anyone who might know who her host family is can contact her through her Facebook page.
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