Hi Ms. Smooth.lady,
Thank you for your extended reply, which greatly clarified the whole picture. In the context of everything you've said, your key and most important sentences (IMO) are:
smooth.lady said:
(i) c.) He [Pat, my Irish lover] still loves me and believes I am his soul mate; he’s admitted this many times to me since we split up. I think if I could convince him how much I love him and [how much I] am prepared to do to win him back, he would be mine once more.
I suspect whatever strategy you adopt will need to be based on "proximity" to succeed. By this, I mean you won't be able to rely on steamy e-mail or cell-phone communications again, at least not exclusively, because you and Pat already did that. At this point, I don't think you can expect to return to "go" and start over again.
I also don't think you will be able to rely on Pat coming to Maryland again so you can demonstrate your love and affection, because he already did that and the outcome was not positive. (I think that's a better way to put it than saying "it came to a bad end.") You can't expect him to do something over again that he already did, without success.
Ergo, to demonstrate your passion for Pat and your seriousness about him, I suggest you need to go to Ireland... on vacation, so to speak... and find a quaint and suitably-romantic place to stay that's reasonably near his home or place of work, so the two of you can get together conveniently (taking into account he's now living with his former wife), and talk at length over cups of coffee and pints of beer in pubs with lots of atmosphere, and fuck and do all manner of associated dirty stuff in your room over some more-or-less extended period of time.
I'll guess you have work commitments in Maryland that will make it less than totally easy to get away for trips to Ireland, but I suggest making a strong effort to arrange your work schedule so you can make your first trip to visit Pat something like 1 week... maybe less, but probably not more than that. You want to re-kindle your romance, without becoming saturated with each other and giving him the impression you're overstaying your visit.
By the end of your first visit, you should have a good feeling for "where you stand" with Pat and whether your relationship with him has a future, or alternatively whether he is, in reality, committed to continuing to live with his former wife.
If the outcome of your first "Irish vacation" is positive... i.e., if you feel you have rekindled your romance with Pat, or are on your way to doing so... I suggest planning subsequent "vacations" in Ireland, each one designed to move you farther along toward your goal. I won't suggest anything further, at this point, since you are the one who knows the constraints of your work schedule and the difficulties of arranging travel without your husband. However you manage it, I think this is what you need to do.
There is, of course, no guarantee of a strategy of this nature actually being successful, and it will involve putting your marriage at risk (I gather, from what you've said). But my feeling is, at this point you need to be the one who takes the initiative, takes action and "makes it happen," rather than passively waiting in Maryland for Pat to come on a large white steed, "sweep you off your feet," and gallop away with you as if your life were some sort of grocery-store romance novel. Women today are educated, assertive, and moving up rapidly in business, the professions, and politics... in Europe and many other countries, as well as in the U.S. Now, women get what they want by taking it — and men respect that.
I strongly suspect you'll find that if you become more assertive and take the lead in re-establishing your romance with Pat, that will work to your advantage, will actually turn him on, and he will respond favorably. Be flexible, be prepared to deal with setbacks, and be wily (if necessary), but persist. Do not wait for Pat to come to you; rather, go to him. Your message to him, IMO... while soft, erotic, and seductive... should also be, unmistakably, that you are a strong woman who wants him and "you will not be denied."
—Custer