Those who say nothing ever changes in Northern Ireland aren’t aware of what was once a ritual of the RTÉ newsroom, the annual trip north to Ara Coeli (‘altar of the sky’), Armagh. It happened each December and the honour fell to a presenter of the This Week radio programme, aired at lunchtime every Sunday. The tradition began in the time when Mike Burns founded and managed RTÉ’s news features unit. The responsibility was later taken on by the likes of Kevin Healy, Gerard Barry and Shane Kenny. A sound engineer, equipped with a bulky reel-to-reel Uher tape recorder, microphones…

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