James Dawson was plucked from Troubles-ridden Belfast to hang out with his ‘American dad’ Michael KeatonTwenty-six years ago, a 10-year-old James Dawson boarded a New York-bound flight from Northern Ireland. A boy from the heart of troubled west Belfast, who had never set foot on a plane or been abroad before, was about to have his life transformed by Batman. They joined thousands of other kindhearted US couples who agreed to welcome unknown Northern Irish children into their homes for six weeks. The scheme was designed to give young people in strife-torn areas an alternative perspective to sectarian division. “I was a youngster from a housing estate in west Belfast,” said Dawson.

Source: The Times December 04, 2016 00:07 UTC