Our family spent a super nine days on the Island of Ireland (the Republic and Northern Ireland of the UK). This was a new country for Khadija, #158; I was there in 1987, hard to believe it was almost four decades ago.

In the following photo, I’m with our posse: our daughter Halimo, Khadija and my niece Toni and her fiancé Charlie (we’re looking forward to the wedding in Colorado in June) in McGann's. This pub is in Doolin, a village near the Cliffs of Moher and famous for its folk music.

In Belfast, we spent most of our time learning about “The Troubles”, a thirty-year violent conflict in Northern Ireland starting from the late 1960s. The crux of the conflict was the Protestant-dominated government discriminated against the Catholic minority in jobs, housing, and voting boundaries. While there has been substantial peace since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods are still largely segregated and some are separated by high walls with gates locked at 6:30pm.

The International Wall wraps around a former flour mill in a Catholic neighborhood with murals honoring those who died fighting for Catholic rights during the conflict, including Bobby Sands. To protest being treated as a criminal and not a political prisoner, he went on a hunger strike for 66 days until he finally passed away. He was the first of ten who died in this gruesome but effective protest.

While he was actively starving to death, a Member of Parliament for Northern Ireland died. Republican (Catholic) activists rapidly nominated Sands to run for the vacant seat. Sands won the election from his prison bed, becoming a democratically elected Member of the British Parliament. His victory completely demolished Margaret Thatcher’s narrative that the Irish Republican Army was without support from the Catholic community. Within six months, the British government essentially granted Sands’ demands, including wearing civilian clothes, no prison work and free association with other republican prisoners. However, they never were officially given the title of “political prisoner”.

Newgrange is north of Dublin and a prehistoric tomb and temple. Built around 3200 BC, this structural wonder is over 5,200 years, making it older than both Stonehenge and the Great Pyramids of Giza. The interior chamber has remained completely waterproof without mortar since it was built. At the base are many carved spiral patterns, some are woven into the background patterns on pages of the Irish passport.

UPCOMING TRIPS

In October and November, I plan to circumnavigate the globe to Riyadh, Bahrain, Bangkok (for the Extraordinary Travel Festival), Manila and finally Oaxaca (for the Day of the Dead celebration). Khadija won’t be able to join me because she will be recovering from knee surgery.

RECENT POSTS

A year ago, Khadija and I went to the highlands of Papua New Guinea where we attended the Asaro Tribal Gathering, the Skeleton Tribe Festival and the spectacular Waterfall Festival. Check out the photos from these amazing events on Papua New Guinea 2025 on ExploringEd.com.

SUBWAY PHOTOGRAPHY:

My beautifully printed black and white “Station to Station: Exploring the New York City Subway” coffee table book is still available. You can see all photos @nycsubwaybook on Instagram and New York Subway Book on Facebook. Click here or email me for a signed copy, not available anywhere else!

SOCIALS:

My website www.ExploringEd.com with detailed posts on our trips.

FB: @Ed.Hotchkiss.3 and @Exploring Ed Travel | IG: @Exploring.Ed.Travel​

RECENT BOOKS​:

The 42nd Parallel (352 pages for current paperback, 1930) by John Dos Passos

This novel follows five American characters from the 1890s up until the United States enters World War I. It’s the first novel of the author’s U.S.A. Trilogy; the second is 1919 (1932) which takes place during and immediately after World War I and the third is The Big Money (1936) spanning the Roaring Twenties to the onset of the Great Depression. The five characters are included in the next two books as well as new ones.

The book contrasts the struggles of the labor movement with the concentration of power by the capitalist elite. The author is obviously sympathetic to the working class in this book, especially those struggling mightily to pay their bills. Ironically, Dos Passos evolved to the political right after his disillusionment with the Soviet Union and the Spanish Civil War but stayed a champion of the “little guy”.

The 42nd parallel is a now debunked theory that this latitude was the path of a majority of North American storms. Dos Passos used it as a metaphor that almost all Americans were not free to choose their destinies but swept up in forces beyond their control. Also, the 42nd parallel runs through New York, Chicago and Detroit, important industrial centers in the early 20th century.

My 1969 paperback edition has wonderful illustrations by Reginal Marsh.

DONATE

The catastrophic avalanches and floods along the Nepal-Tibet border on August 26, 2026, have killed over 1,000 people and left more than 5,000 missing in Nepal, with many more in Tibet. The cause was a collapse of a glacier that triggered a rock and debris deluge and devastating flash floods. The avalanche buried everything in its path, including villages, markets, roads, communications infrastructure and hydroelectric plants.

I have just contributed to three organizations helping the survivors and searching for the missing. I encourage everyone also to donate to them or other worthy organizations helping these besieged communities and families.

​All Hands & Hearts responds urgently and works hand-in-hand with communities to meet immediate needs and support long-term recovery from climate-related disasters.

​Plan International, a development and humanitarian organization that works to protect children’s rights and equality for girls, is providing kits for shelter, hygiene and menstrual health management.

​Mountain Heart Nepal responds to natural disasters in Nepal by providing holistic quality care to the victims by providing primary health care, psychological support and public health education.

Happy Travels🌏… Exploring Ed