Time Travel

I’m just back from a three-week trip to Ireland and England.

On the day of my departure, I checked in my bag early (a big mistake). My journey home consisted of two flights: Palm Springs to San Francisco, and, then to Dublin. As the time neared for my first leg of the journey, the flight was delayed, and the delay meant that I couldn’t make the second leg of my trip on time. So, what was to be done?

I originally booked with Aer Lingus, which codeshares with United. Since United delayed the flight, they were responsible for getting me to Dublin. I only found this out after spending several hours on the phone with Aer Lingus and United. 

When I finally got to speak to a United agent, they booked me to fly the following day. My journey now entailed three flights: Palm Springs to Denver, then to Newark, and onto Dublin. However, there was one glaring problem. Since I’d checked my bag in early, United sent it to San Francisco without me.

Lost and Found

A bag tracker is useful; and United’s bag tracker had my bag still in San Francisco. When I asked United about this, I was assured it would eventually catch up with me.

The next day, I flew to Denver, and then to Newark, where I checked the bag tracker again. It was still in Francisco.

A young representative for United, explained to me that the bag tracker hadn’t been updated, and, yes indeed, it was on the plane. I was skeptical.

I was under the impression that he would’ve told me anything to get rid of me, and I was right. When I reached Dublin, I watched everyone reclaim their luggage until there was nothing else on the carousel.

My bag was still in San Francisco. Once again, I was assured that it would follow me to Derry once they found a way to fly into the country.  

Eight days later, I’m on the bus to Belfast airport to see my sister in England when I get a call from Dublin airport that my bag has finally arrived in Ireland. The code for Aer Lingus is EI, and some bright spark thought the E stood for Ethiopian Airlines.

In those missing days, my bag may have enjoyed an exotic trip to a faraway place, who knows?  But one thing was for sure, it would be another week before I saw it again.

To cap it all, I had a small stroller bag with me for my flight to England, and on my return to Belfast, I checked it in. I’d taken the early flight from Bristol at 6 a.m., and when I arrived in Ireland, my bag was not on the carousel. Everyone else had their bag but me.

I went to where the chute expelled the bags. There it was, stuck in no man’s land between the belt, and the rollers, refusing to move. Throwing a computer bag, and a kind lady’s bag at it did nothing to dislodge the bag.

There was no one around to help. I had to wait until the carousel stopped before climbing over and retrieving it.

Despite the fact that my luggage wanted nothing to do with me, I had a great time with my family. Yes, it was cold and damp. And, yes, it was probably the worst time to visit, but I still enjoyed it.

What I loved most of all was getting back to some kind of normality. When you’ve lived too long in the circus of Bozo’s making, you lose perspective. It’s nice to see that Ireland has come a long way from being the church-ridden place it used to be. It’s great to see the cultural diversity newcomers to Ireland bring to the country.

And while the future of Northern Ireland is still uncertain, there’s no desire to return to the violence of the Troubles. The whole of Ireland has changed dramatically since I lived there in 2004, and it’s for the better. Ireland may have been, at one time, a place to escape from, but now it’s become a place to escape to.

A Tale of Two Countries

However, it never ceases to amaze me that Irish Americans have a very sentimental view of the homeland that refuses to consider the amazing changes that have happened over the last two decades. Irish people are bewildered by American politics. They are even more astounded by the fact that so many Irish Americans would vote for Bozo and his crew.

Losing my luggage was one thing, but had I lost my mind. Why would I choose to live in a place where peaceful civilians are shot for disagreeing with the establishment? A place where American citizens are deported based on racial profiling? These are hard questions, and they’re not easy to answer.

I’ve lived here for over twenty years and the changes I’ve seen have not been good. Ireland has found a way to regain the power it lost to the church, and those politicians who kept them in their place, whereas this country has surrendered itself to a fumbling would-be despot.

There is much to love about this country and much to be proud of, but the current administration is not one of them. I speak fondly of the things that I enjoy here when I’m back in Ireland, and avoid speaking about the elephant in the White House.

I’m proud of how Ireland has embraced its democratic roots and changed things for the better. I can only hope that what has been misplaced in this country, a sound mind, will find its way back to the polling booths.

It’s time to no longer tolerate Bozo’s idiotic meanderings, and his desire to exploit the American people while helping out his rich friends. We need a government that’s accountable to the people, and not the other way around.