Paul O’Mahoney spoke of his grandfather’s business in Belfast, Northern Ireland, being bombed three times.

O’Mahoney and nine other teen-agers from Bangor (pronounced Binegur) — five Catholics, five Protestants — spoke Tuesday during a Rotary Club luncheon. They all said that the fighting between the religions isn’t as prominent in their small town as it is in Belfast. But it’s not entirely gone, either.

“We just hear whispers of that in Bangor,” said O’Mahoney, a Catholic. “But it hasn’t disappeared. That’s why programs like Friends Forever are so important.”

Since last Saturday, the Friends Forever youth and their group leaders have been staying in the Newcastle area, spreading their message of good will. They visited Lincoln Academy and spent two days in area family homes, and worked alongside Rotarians in a community service project.

They were hosted — all 10 of them — by St. Patrick’s Catholic Senior Youth Ministry Group on the first Sunday, and will visit the Second Congregational Church of Newcastle Youth Ministry Group this coming Sunday.

Now staying at Camp Kieve, the engaging, forthright and polite group of young people and their chaperons will return home on Nov. 3.

All three students, ages 14 to 17, stood on the podium for questions following brief speeches by John M’ateer and O’Mahoney. They nodded in agreement when Hannah Ryan, a Catholic, delved deeper into the current situation in their homeland.

Young people are not told, Ryan said, that one religion or the other is “bad,” per se. But they’re not encouraged to mix with each other either, she said. The division has historically been more pronounced with police, who tend to be more Protestant, she said.

People applying for jobs must declare whether they are Catholic or Protestant.

M’ateer, who goes to a Protestant school, said he has experienced only one conflict, a few years back when his bus got “bottled” in Belfast. M’ateer said he feels sorry for the people of that city.

“They’ve experienced a lot more conflict than I have,” he said.

Over lunch, Catholic Katie Thompson said she attended a “mixed” primary school. Thompson said she was struck by the lack of emphasis on religious differences here.

“It’s an eye-opener to realize there are two perspectives,” she said, as she offered water to fellow diners. “People here are more open. People in Northern Ireland keep things bottled up.”

Thompson said she is loving the sights of Mid-coast Maine.

“Everything’s so much bigger, like the big old homes,” she said. “It’s like old England.”

Amy Arnott, a Protestant, said that the strife in her country has “calmed down, but it’s not gone completely.”

Arnott is fascinated by the American elections.

“There’s more choice,” she said. “There’s little focus on elections in Ireland.” ¦ FRIENDS FOREVER

Founded in 1986, by Rotarian and YMCA director Robert Raiche, Friends Forever began as a joint Portsmouth, N.H.-based YMCA/Rotary effort to unite one small group of Catholic and Protestant teens from Northern Ireland. Since that time, Friends Forever has grown to host 60 youth from Northern Ireland annually. Friends Forever also expanded to serve the Arab and Jewish youth of Israel. More than 1,000 youth have graduated from the Friends Forever program. The program enables selected teens to break the cycle of violence and lead their communities in peaceful coexistence.

SOURCE: FRIENDS FOREVER.