class in Belfast and Adelaide

I have recently come to reflect upon the similarities between the city of my birth and Adelaide.

In spite of the obvious substantial differences in history and climate there are some cultural similarities.

One of the things I disliked about Belfast was the lack of curiosity about the outside world. It is the same in Adelaide. To be fair, this was the same in Melbourne and Brisbane. I suspect it is the same in any major western city.

Outside of Belfast though the rural peole were indeed curious and hospitable.

The religious divide in the city is well-known. This amounted to a voluntary form of 'apartheid' where people were more or less obliged to live in different areas and go to different schools, played different sports, and often even go to different workplaces.

But Belfast had another form of social apartheid which it seems to share with Adelaide. Belfast was a class society where the working class lived a separate life from the middle class. The two rarely mixed. They interacted differently with each other, had different social mores, and even spoke with different accents.

In middle class Belfast you did not just 'drop-in' on people-you made an appointment-or at the very least you phoned beforehand. In rural Ireland this would have been unheard of. People dropped in all the time on each other. I don't know whether this is still true of rural Ireland or not. One of the things I enjoy most about cultures in developing countries is that, as in rural Ireland in my youth, they are more informal and encourage impromptu visits. It is always the right time to call in Africa or Mexico.(I never felt I was intruding.) In Middle-class Belfast this was not acceptable. I am not sure that it is in middle class Adelaide either but I haven't been here long enough to be sure.

I was brought up believing firmly that I belonged to the middle class and was not expected to have much contact with the working class (catholic or protestant) during my childhood. I was actually afraid of the working class.

To be fair to Adelaide I think it was the same in Melbourne when we were there twenty years ago. I did not feel this in Brisbane. Perhaps this is because we regarded ourselves as belonging to the working class in Brisbane. Maybe there was a middle class but we couldn't find it-and we were there for eight years!