Northern Ireland Week
I woke up to Mark Stephen on Out of Doors this morning just as he was linking up with ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Ulster's Your Place And Mine programme. I could be wrong, but I'm sure I heard him mock the Belfast presenter for the way they actually prounounce "Northern Ireland". Our plans for a week of joint programming could have ended there and then had we not quickly discovered that we share a similar sense of humour.
This themed week of programmes - leading up to Saint Andrew's Day - came at the suggestion of my colleagues over the water and, in particular one very taltened and persistent programme-maker called Declan McGovern. He's spent months talking to our producers and deciding which programmes should work in partnership.
´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio Ulster listeners will hear these seven days described as 'Scotland Week' while we're calling it 'Northern Ireland' week. When I was talking about this at the staff meeting in Edinburgh last week, someone said it was "just like the Vietnam war". I was baffled until it was explained that the Americans called that conflict the Vietnam War, while their enemies described it as The American War.
"Ah yes, " I said, as the penny dropped, "yes, this is exactly like that. Except this will all be over much more quickly."
"Hmmm, " said another producer, "that's what the Americans thought too. But they got bogged down there for years."
Sometimes you can stretch an analogy just too far.
