Missing Heathrow
Belfast to London is a domestic flight - good thing, because the wait times at Heathrow Immigration are up to two hours because of understaffing. People are so frustrated there have been shouting incidents and recently a group of travelers rushed the line en masse and the security people just let them through. Newspaper reports now say the Government will start charging airlines more now to help beef up staffing in time for the Olympics.
Not my worry today, though. It feels very strange to be flying into London like a regular commuter - I'd never heard of BMI (British Midlands) before I booked the ticket and surprised how new the planes are, with leather seats and little hooks for suit jackets. - the flight is almost full which isn't surprising because it costs so little - $40.00 (about 30 pounds), less than a flight from L.A. to San Francisco. They even supply a choice of free newspapers to read during the hour long flight.
The Belfast City Airport is much smaller than the larger International terminal outside town and security consisted of a friendly man who only needed to see my boarding pass (not my passport) then made a joke about my Apple iPad (if you put two of them together, you get a pair, a pair, get it?). Lest anyone think security there was lax, he then asked pleasantly if he could examine my 'wee' computer and promptly whipped out an explosives kit and wiped it down thoroughly. After I went through the metal detector (note to self: don't wear underwire bra next time) I was pulled over patted down by a female office over every part of my body except the ones that were barely permissible. And I now know feeling inside your jeans waist is permissible.
Perhaps it was the discovery of the 600 pound bomb in somebody's back yard outside Belfast earlier this week that has them on edge. The cabbies who took me from the Public Records office and back (I walked everywhere else) had plenty to say about the changes here, most of them positive. But old habits die hard: For one thing they all tell you their religion, which means a great deal here, for better or worse. One driver, a burly, bald man who was listening to football on the radio ("I love my sports, he said, except for Cricket....boring!) told me that in his north Belfast neighborhood he has never strayed outside his Catholic enclave, not one street over to the Protestant side and wondered if he ever would. There are many walls in Belfast that were built between Catholic and Protestant areas and even now they are only open during the day. Some are still closed 24/7. Another cabbie told me that he, a Protestant, had married his wife, a Catholic, and back in the 70's it was so dangerous do this in Belfast they had to move out of the city.
This war between the religions can be traced back to 15th Century's willful king, Henry VIII, with a contribution in no small measure by the powerful papal hierarchy in Rome. Many think Henry (who in fact remained a Catholic his whole life) created a new religion but he was only responding to a larger anti-papist movement in Europe that emboldened his desire to cut off the dictates of Rome. In many ways, it was inevitable - the Pope and his Cardinals throughout Europe wielded as much power as the Kings they served, and their secret political and cultural machinations around Europe were bound to chafe sooner or later. But the unintended consequences of the division and subsequent populist rise of protestantism in Britain festered most in Ireland with its strong Catholic base, intensifying after the great 'Ulster Planting', as it became known, which brought English and Scottish settlers into Ireland in the 16th and 17th Centuries. This was social engineering on a grand scale and was meant to control the wilds of a distant realm. These events changed the fortunes of many - the indigenous populations (and ancient clans) lost land holdings and favored members of aristocracy (or landed gentry) in England and Scotland were granted or purchased vast tracts of arable land thus gaining control of the economy.
When the last of the Catholic Kings (James II) was summarily exiled in the late 17th Century in favor of Protestant William and Mary, the landed gentry followed suit and converted to the religion of their King, so closely tied as they were to London. Catholics, now outcast in the political system, became the working poor and the dye was cast for class warfare that erupted frequently over the subsequent centuries.
Being identified by one's religion has factored into one of the tantalizing mysteries surrounding Mathew and Margaret Hamilton Forde, the subjects of my research here. Although Forde claimed to be Church of Ireland (Anglican), a clue to his hidden loyalties can be found in his Last Will and Testament, written the night before he died, in which he requested that he be 'buried at night' with all due haste in a cemetery that was known to be Catholic, and with as little fanfare as possible. This little bit of skullduggery points to a conversion in name only in order to protect his property from the protestant Monarchy and the bands of political thugs who were still looking for ways to annihilate Catholics. Another clue is Margaret's religion - her father, Sir George Hamilton, was an avowed Catholic, and he would never have sanctioned a marriage with a Protestant had he not been made aware of the practical necessity on Mathew's part to 'convert'. Most gentry had switched to Church of Ireland but Hamilton had a free pass from Charles II to remain Catholic because of his loyal service to his father during the Cromwellian Civil Wars. Forde had no such protection so he had to resort to a Catholic burial in the dead of night with only his wife and son as witness.
400 years later, the walls separating the two religions are still visible in the landscape, still part of the Belfast identity. But cooler heads have prevailed in the last decade and one can only hope they move beyond fist-a-cuffs and clan loyalty, continuing to use diplomacy to gain their political, social, and cultural rights. North and south are no longer separated by soldiers and checkpoints. And as the border blurs one wonders how long it will be before the two finally unite.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Not my worry today, though. It feels very strange to be flying into London like a regular commuter - I'd never heard of BMI (British Midlands) before I booked the ticket and surprised how new the planes are, with leather seats and little hooks for suit jackets. - the flight is almost full which isn't surprising because it costs so little - $40.00 (about 30 pounds), less than a flight from L.A. to San Francisco. They even supply a choice of free newspapers to read during the hour long flight.
The Belfast City Airport is much smaller than the larger International terminal outside town and security consisted of a friendly man who only needed to see my boarding pass (not my passport) then made a joke about my Apple iPad (if you put two of them together, you get a pair, a pair, get it?). Lest anyone think security there was lax, he then asked pleasantly if he could examine my 'wee' computer and promptly whipped out an explosives kit and wiped it down thoroughly. After I went through the metal detector (note to self: don't wear underwire bra next time) I was pulled over patted down by a female office over every part of my body except the ones that were barely permissible. And I now know feeling inside your jeans waist is permissible.
Perhaps it was the discovery of the 600 pound bomb in somebody's back yard outside Belfast earlier this week that has them on edge. The cabbies who took me from the Public Records office and back (I walked everywhere else) had plenty to say about the changes here, most of them positive. But old habits die hard: For one thing they all tell you their religion, which means a great deal here, for better or worse. One driver, a burly, bald man who was listening to football on the radio ("I love my sports, he said, except for Cricket....boring!) told me that in his north Belfast neighborhood he has never strayed outside his Catholic enclave, not one street over to the Protestant side and wondered if he ever would. There are many walls in Belfast that were built between Catholic and Protestant areas and even now they are only open during the day. Some are still closed 24/7. Another cabbie told me that he, a Protestant, had married his wife, a Catholic, and back in the 70's it was so dangerous do this in Belfast they had to move out of the city.
This war between the religions can be traced back to 15th Century's willful king, Henry VIII, with a contribution in no small measure by the powerful papal hierarchy in Rome. Many think Henry (who in fact remained a Catholic his whole life) created a new religion but he was only responding to a larger anti-papist movement in Europe that emboldened his desire to cut off the dictates of Rome. In many ways, it was inevitable - the Pope and his Cardinals throughout Europe wielded as much power as the Kings they served, and their secret political and cultural machinations around Europe were bound to chafe sooner or later. But the unintended consequences of the division and subsequent populist rise of protestantism in Britain festered most in Ireland with its strong Catholic base, intensifying after the great 'Ulster Planting', as it became known, which brought English and Scottish settlers into Ireland in the 16th and 17th Centuries. This was social engineering on a grand scale and was meant to control the wilds of a distant realm. These events changed the fortunes of many - the indigenous populations (and ancient clans) lost land holdings and favored members of aristocracy (or landed gentry) in England and Scotland were granted or purchased vast tracts of arable land thus gaining control of the economy.
When the last of the Catholic Kings (James II) was summarily exiled in the late 17th Century in favor of Protestant William and Mary, the landed gentry followed suit and converted to the religion of their King, so closely tied as they were to London. Catholics, now outcast in the political system, became the working poor and the dye was cast for class warfare that erupted frequently over the subsequent centuries.
Being identified by one's religion has factored into one of the tantalizing mysteries surrounding Mathew and Margaret Hamilton Forde, the subjects of my research here. Although Forde claimed to be Church of Ireland (Anglican), a clue to his hidden loyalties can be found in his Last Will and Testament, written the night before he died, in which he requested that he be 'buried at night' with all due haste in a cemetery that was known to be Catholic, and with as little fanfare as possible. This little bit of skullduggery points to a conversion in name only in order to protect his property from the protestant Monarchy and the bands of political thugs who were still looking for ways to annihilate Catholics. Another clue is Margaret's religion - her father, Sir George Hamilton, was an avowed Catholic, and he would never have sanctioned a marriage with a Protestant had he not been made aware of the practical necessity on Mathew's part to 'convert'. Most gentry had switched to Church of Ireland but Hamilton had a free pass from Charles II to remain Catholic because of his loyal service to his father during the Cromwellian Civil Wars. Forde had no such protection so he had to resort to a Catholic burial in the dead of night with only his wife and son as witness.
400 years later, the walls separating the two religions are still visible in the landscape, still part of the Belfast identity. But cooler heads have prevailed in the last decade and one can only hope they move beyond fist-a-cuffs and clan loyalty, continuing to use diplomacy to gain their political, social, and cultural rights. North and south are no longer separated by soldiers and checkpoints. And as the border blurs one wonders how long it will be before the two finally unite.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
posted by vallie at 9:33 AM
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