The Founder of Project Children.
Denis P. Mulcahy, a native of Rockchapel, County Cork, emigrated to the United States in 1962. He joined the New York City Police Department in 1969. He served with the Tactical Patrol Force, Street Crime Unit, and the 28th Precinct Detective Squad, before joining the elite Bomb Squad in 1983. He retired in 2002 as a First Grade Detective after 33 years of dedicated service to the NYPD.
Denis was one of the founders of PROJECT CHILDREN in 1975. Throughout the 40 years of the program over 23,000 young Catholics and Protestant children travelled to the US for summer holiday respite from the everyday violence and strife of their homeland. The program continues for the young adults in the intern program. The intern program is both cross community and cross border and gives them the opportunity to work together beginning each summer with a week working together at Habitat for Humanity in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
In 1975 Denis was instrumental in founding the Greenwood Lake Gaelic Society and served as its first President. In 1987, Denis was awarded the Medal of Valor by the NYCPD for the extremely dangerous task of diffusing a bomb. Also, in 1987 Denis was honored with the Bene Merenti Medal from his Holiness, Pope John Paul II. He also received the Private Sector Initiative Commendation from President Ronald Reagan, as well as the Cuchulainn Award from the Sacred Heart Club of County Armagh. He was honored by the County Cork B.P.P. Association in March 1988 and was Irish Man of the Year in 1988 for the Emerald Golf Society. In November of 1989, he was awarded the People of the Year Award in Dublin, Ireland.
Cardinal John O’Connor awarded the Cardinal Cooke Right to Life to Denis in 1991. In 1993, Ireland’s President Mary Robinson presented him with the Irish Voice’s Community Person of the Year Award. He was also nominated for two consecutive years for the very prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for all his work for the children of Northern Ireland and was runner up to Nelson Mandela and Mother Teresa.
In March of 1994, Denis was chosen as one of the top 100 Irish Americans of the Year, receiving an award from the former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds. He was also a guest of President Clinton at the St. Patrick’s Day celebration at the White House. In 1995 Denis received the Top Cop Award in Washington D.C. by Vice President Al Gore. In November of 1995, President Clinton asked Denis to join him on his historic trip to Northern Ireland. In that same year ABC News named him Person of the Week. The World of Hibernia considers him one of fifty “SuperIrish”. In 1996 the NYC Police Department Emerald Society honored Denis as Man of the Year. In 1996 he was named Grand Marshal of the Mid Hudson and 1999 Washington D.C. St. Patrick’s Day Parade. In 2000 he was honored by the Dublin Society and named Man of the Year by the NYPD Holy Name Society. He was awarded the McClancy Leadership Award from Msgr. McClancy Memorial High School. He received the Council’s 2011 Humanitarian Award from The Council of Irish Associations of Greater Bergen County, Inc.
Denis has received Honorary Doctorate degrees from Mount Saint Mary College and Holy Family University. In 2016 Denis received the title of Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II. In 2017 at the NY State AOH Convention Denis received the Commodore John Barry medal. In 2017 he also received the Presidential Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad, presented to him personally by the President of Ireland Michael D. Higgins. In 2018, Denis received the Dr. Eoin McKiernan Award from the Irish American Cultural Institute and received a presentation on behalf of the Washington Ireland Program from the Irish Taoiseach, Leo Vradkar. Taoiseach Vradkar was one of the first participants from the south of Ireland on the Washington Ireland Program. More recently, Denis received the Ancient Order of Hibernians JFK National Award in Louisville, Kentucky.
In 2018, the Mulcahy Scholarship was launched by the Aisling Irish Community Center, Yonkers, New York, in tribute to Denis and his family’s enormous commitment to Project Children, along with his service as an AICC board member for the past twenty-five years. Forty years later, America is replicating the reverse, as the scholarship provides American high school students the opportunity to travel to Ireland and experience Irish culture in a fun and diverse way. Scholarship recipients participate in educational summer courses, exposing them to Irish culture, heritage, arts, and sport.
In February 2024, the former Taoiseach (Prime Minister) of Ireland, Leo Varadkar, met with Denis and the Monaghan County Council in Co. Monaghan, Ireland to officially announce the cultural partnership between Project Children and the Monaghan Peace Campus, where we will see the history and memorabilia archived and housed for posterity to learn of the accomplishments of this hard-working, volunteer run organization. The official launch of the permanent archive is set for October 8, 2025, at the Monaghan Peace Campus. Project Children is also proudly celebrating 50 years in 2025 and to coincide with this milestone, Denis is proudly named as the Grand Marshal of the Yonkers St. Patrick’s Day parade on March 22, 2025, where he will be greatly honored to lead the community on McLean Avenue for a memorable celebration.
Denis is married to the former Miriam O’Rourke, a native of County Leitrim. They reside in Greenwood Lake, New York. They have four children: Denis Jr., a partner with Deloitte and Touche, Maureen, a Lieutenant with Manhattan Detectives, Sean, also with the NYPD Bomb Squad, and Tara, a Sergeant with the New York State Court. They have eight grandchildren, Tara-Lynne, Denise, Seana, Kaitlyn, Denis III, Lindsay, Sean, and Jake, and one great grandson, Maverick.