MOWEAQUA - Ireland is not full of redheads after all.

Reagan Aylmer thought that when she arrived in the land of her ancestors, she would finally fit in, but she got as many lilting Irish comments on her ginger locks as she does back home in the Midwest, though many of the Irish thought she must be one of them because of it.

"Everywhere we went, you'd hear really thick Irish accents say, 'Oh, look, an Irish lass,'" Reagan, 18, said with a grin. "Then I'd turn around and I'd say something and they'd hear my American accent, and they'd be like, 'Oh, she's just a faker.'"

Reagan and her sister Caitlin, 19, visited the Emerald Isle this year immediately after Reagan's graduation from Central A&M High School, a trip largely inspired by a pair of real Irish lasses who spent the summer of 1998 with their family as part of the Children's Friendship Project.

The project paired Catholic and Protestant teens from Northern Ireland and sent them to the United States to spend a few weeks with an American family in the hopes that, away from "the troubles," the teens would see they had more in common than they thought, and that their friendships would help ease tensions back home.

Davina Reid and Sandra Whiteside have stayed in touch with the Aylmers and Reid is now an associate with the Goodwin-Proctor law firm in New York City. Whiteside recently spent her honeymoon in Florida.

"That's one of the summers that really stood out from my childhood, I think," Reagan said. "It was just such a neat experience."

"We still got to do a lot of vacationing that we usually had done, but the girls came with us," Caitlin said. "We're originally from the Chicago area, but being from there, you don't usually do the touristy things. It was a lot of fun. It was a different way of looking at it."

Reagan and Caitlin remembered how the girls spoke glowingly of the beauty of the Irish countryside. They wanted to see it for themselves, especially because their family has Irish roots. They loaded up a couple of backpacks and stayed in hostels.

One night near Killarney, the girls even stayed in a 15th century castle that's been converted into an inn. As much as possible has been left untouched, Reagan said, and smoke stains remain in the dining area from cooking fires of auld lang syne.

"Those stains have been there for hundreds of years," she said.

The Irish people welcomed them and were very friendly, both girls said, and one thing that really struck them is how interested and informed the Irish were about the American election. It brought home to them how little Americans know about other countries' politics. The Irish folks knew all about the Clinton/Obama fight for the Democrat presidential nomination, in some cases more than the girls themselves knew.

Mother Mary wasn't too worried about their traveling alone. She has faith in her daughters' good judgment, she said, and besides, she has to get used to it. Reagan's leaving for Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., soon on a full scholarship, and Caitlin, a Richland Community College student who plans to transfer to Eastern Illinois University, calls "world traveler" her ideal career.

Mom did get to keep track of the girls via the Internet. She gave them prepaid debit cards and could track their spending and location by following up on where they used the cards. And once she called the hostel where they were supposed to be to make sure they'd arrived safely, when they hadn't called home in a couple of days.

"They told me 'They're here and they're having a wonderful time,'" Aylmer said.

Valerie Wells can be reached at vwells@herald-review.com or 421-7982.