When the mighty German ice-breaker Polarstern steams into Galway Bay today, the chief scientist on board may have more than marine life on his mind.
Dr Jörn Thiede, professor at the German Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, is due to be reunited with an Irishwoman he hasn't seen for 40 years.
Mrs Marie Wrixon was a young bank official in Dublin when she spent a fortnight with the 21-year-old visitor from Kiel in 1963. They had been pen pals when Mrs Wrixon, originally from Tipperary, was at boarding school. After Jörn's Dublin visit, they lost touch, and it was through RTÉ Radio's John Creedon Show several weeks ago that they made contact again.
Dr Thiede has been directing an international research expedition which has been studying coral out in the Atlantic. When he knew he was going to be in Ireland, he sought advice on how to trace his friend. A Strasbourg-based Irish marine scientist suggested the RTÉ Radio programme; Mr Creedon obliged.
Mrs Wrixon was at home in Dublin when she heard the broadcast. "John Creedon talked about a Maria who was at boarding school, was from Tipperary and worked in the bank. I knew then it must be me, but I was quite shocked to hear my name mentioned in the context of something that happened 40 years ago."
Asked "what happened" by this reporter, Mrs Wrixon roared laughing. "We were friends," she said. "It was a very different Ireland then, remember? Edna O'Brien's time and all that." Several years afterwards, she got married.
After the radio appeal this month, Mrs Wrixon waited 24 hours before contacting the John Creedon Show. Married, with four grown-up children, she told her husband. "He was very relaxed about it all."
Dr Thiede and Mrs Wrixon have spoken on the phone, and the reunion is set to take place this morning on the ice-breaker. The ship will be anchored off Barna as it is too big to berth in Galway docks.
Dr Thiede's first duty today will be to present the findings of the expedition's research, which should show that some 60 per cent of all deep-water corals on the European Continental Margin are in Irish waters. More than 40 marine scientists from Ireland, Belgium, Britain, France and Germany have participated in the research.
However, even as he speaks, Dr Thiede may also be keeping an eye out for the pilot boat from the Galway Harbour Office, which is due to take Mrs Wrixon to the ship. She is taking a companion with her for the meeting. A chaperone? Once again, she laughed.