More from Ireland ...

We're in Co. Mayo, Ireland now -- have been here a few days after our lovely time in Belfast. A highlight of our stay there was one of those double-decker (with open top) bus tours. We had a terrific guide with a great sense of humor who showed us everything from the shipyard where the Titanic was built to the politically intense landscape of the Shankill Road and the Falls Road, where there is now peace, but a giant wall still slices through peoples' backyards dividing one community from the other. The colorful murals that are commonplace on both sides depict starkly opposing political positions, but all connote a bitter battle that has gone on too long. As the guide said, it's not fair to expect cordial relations after decades of animosity and violence, but a few years of peace is certainly the beginning of a foundation for reconciliation down the road.

Four years ago, when we were here in the Republic of Ireland last, the Celtic Tiger was in mid-roar, but four years later, you can see the final product of a booming economy in a vastly changed landscape with large, stately homes with stone entranceways and the like cropping up on former and current farmland everywhere. The economy is suffering some now, and things are slowing down, but the building continues in many areas.The other big change here since our last visit is the service economy. Virtually everyone who has served us in a restaurant or convenience store is a foreign national from one of many different parts of the world. Here in Ballyhaunis, Mayo, there are many African immigrants.

Tomorrow we head back to Dublin for a few days before heading back to New York on Monday. We won't have much internet access there, so this may be one of the last posts until we return.

But we'll probably post a little more when we return -- to fill in some of the experiences we never got to report ...