Senior writer Patrick Rogers admits he felt a bit apprehensive as he went to interview former Irish Republican Army terrorist Shane O'Doherty (page 48), who masterminded a bombing campaign that injured a dozen people during the early 1970s. "I was nervous, but as soon as I walked in, his dog licked me, and the man offered me a glass of white wine," says Rogers, 35. "I began to think maybe I didn't have to worry."

When a possible peace settlement in the long and bitter conflict between Northern Ireland's Catholics and Protestants was announced last month, Rogers had already scheduled a trip to Dublin for a friend's wedding. He jumped at the chance to extend his stay and report about the breakthrough for PEOPLE. "Ireland is a home away from home for me," says Rogers, a native Texan who spent his teen years in Dublin when his father, a Texaco executive, was transferred there. Fascinated as a boy with tales of knights and castles, he remembers the thrill of finding several châteaus in his family's suburban Dublin neighborhood. "It was a dream come true," Rogers says.

Belfast in 1998 contrasts starkly with that childhood idyll. Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods are divided by barbed wire and patrolled by British soldiers. "It's incredibly tense," says Rogers, a Yale graduate who came to PEOPLE in 1995 after six years at Newsweek. He was joined in Northern Ireland by London correspondent Nina Biddle, who interviewed Protestant former gunman Billy Hutchinson. "No one expects the killing to stop overnight," says Rogers. "But there's nervousness, and excitement—and hope. It was a thrilling experience. And it was also nice to get home." Where he'll stay—until another good story beckons.

On a sad note, we at People are mourning the loss of a frequent contributor, our friend Ron Ridenhour, 52, who died suddenly on May 10 of a heart attack. Ron's first venture into journalism came when he made news himself, spectacularly: As an Army helicopter gunner in Vietnam, he heard rumors about a massacre of civilians, doggedly dug out the facts and, soon after his return to the United States in 1968, sent letters to President Richard Nixon and members of Congress that ultimately brought the events at My Lai to the attention of the world. From that start, Ron never lost his passion for stories that make a difference. In 1988 he won a prestigious Polk Award for his investigative reporting. His notable PEOPLE subjects included Oseola McCarty, a washerwoman who gave a large part of her life savings to a Mississippi university; and Sister Helen Prejean, whose dedication to counseling death row inmates inspired the movie Dead Man Walking. We were privileged to work with Ron, and we will miss him.