Today, after visiting more sacred sites both Pagan and Christian, we continued on through County Sligo and past Donegal, both lush and beautiful and with sun-shiny weather too, we made our way over to Northern Ireland. Except for a slight bump in the road (where the Republic stops maintaining the highways), you'd never know that we were entering a different country. But a different world it feels, from the lack of street signs in Gaelic to the Union Jacks adorning various public places like golf courses (a not so subtle sign of lingering segregation). We're heading to Derry, known in the north as Londonderry and ground zero for many of "The Troubles", the violent political and religious turmoil that took place here from 1969 to as recently as 2001 in nearby Ormagh. My first impressions of Derry: the amazing amount of tall, sharp edged, jagged steel gates encircling many buildings and streets. This ain't free-lovin' Galway, anymore. The next morning, I went on a fantastic walking tour of "Free Derry", the area that after so many years of bloodshed and tears, is now free from the tyranny of the British forces...(sort of...as there are still many high range cameras and police presence watching the citizens' every move from their walled-in military stations). Led by local tour guide Martin McCrossan, we saw the street where, on January 30, 1972 "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" happened. Thirteen mostly young, all unarmed citizens were gun downed as they made their way though the streets in a peaceful demonstration for Irish unity. Being here, all these years later, my heart was left with impressons: an amazing, brutal, intense, grievous, raw experience. One can just imagine what horror it must have been for those involved. All over the neighborhood are murals depicting the scenes from that day, some featuring young boys throwing malatov cocktails, the IRA leader Bernadette Devlin leading the locals in protest, a priest trying to stop the violence and being shot in the process. The Peace Accord was signed in Belfast in 1998, and things are slowing improving here but the scars will take years to heal. Our tour guide Martin has been leading tours for world leaders from all over.and is well known on the streets as we wander in and out. He points out the still surviving garrisons, the closed off Prostestant area still wrapped in barbed wire (to protect the small minority of Derry's non-Catholic citizens). It's an engaging place and the problems here in Derry are not simple to sort out, though these days both sides are working fervently to make sure that no other bombs or gunfire takes any more victims from either side. It's not so easy to just equate the troubles as Catholic v. Protestant, either. It's much more complex. On some roads, the curbs are painted red, white and blue, signalling UK loyalist support, others fly the Irish flag, as Republican and Unionist supporters. I was deeply moved by this tour and encourage others to ask Martin McCrossan to show them Derry firsthand.