Going Home Again (Biology Today) (Report‪)‬

I just got back from a trip to Ireland, the second in six months. Lest you think I fly to the land of my ancestors on a regular basis, I should say that before this year I hadn't been to Ireland since 1971, and I really had no desire to return. My parents, who were born there, were long dead, and whenever I thought of Ireland I felt a twinge of sadness. I pictured going there as just turning that twinge into full-blown pain, and besides this, I had lost contact with all my relatives. In addition, there were so many other places in the world to explore. Then the Internet intervened. I received an e-mail from a cousin in Belfast who had found my name on Google. That message put me in touch not only with her and her two sisters but with her 90-year-old mother, my mother's first cousin. I had had great visits with them when I was a teenager, and this new connection with them made me long for a visit. So off I went the first chance I got, which was last January--not the ideal time to visit a damp, northern island, but the weather was great and the visit even better. Since the peace accord of 1998, Belfast has revived, and my cousins were proud to tell me that Belfast even had a tour bus, which we boarded. It took us to the sectarian areas where the worst of the violence took place for 30 years. The major reminders of those times are painted murals and a "peace wall" dividing the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods. The best part of the tour was a visit to the docks where the Titanic was built. During the 20th century, Belfast was embarrassed by this connection, but now, to lure tourists, they are taking a different tack, with the slogan: "She was alright when she left here."