The dignitaries - including FG's Nora Owen and P.J. Mara - journalists and many PR minders who turned up at Dublin Airport on Tuesday for the special Ryanair flight to Derry to mark the launch by Tanaiste Mary Harney and Northern Secretary Mo Mowlam of the new Derry to Stansted route were greatly surprised to see on the departure screen that they were actually flying to a place called Londonderry. Indignation among some of the guests - including veteran FF minder Bart Cronin, now the press officer to Tourism Minister James McDaid, who joined the happy group in Derry - led to queries to the Ryanair people as to what they were about. Wasn't the name changed by the council some years ago? Maybe, said Ryanair, but Londonderry was the official IATA designation for the destination.
The good-humoured slagging did not stop anyone - whatever their politics - flying to the place called Londonderry. Also, it was noticed, it didn't stop the majority taking advantage of the duty-free facility that crossing a border still confers. Nor, indeed, did they refuse Ryanair's coffee on the way up and drinks on the way back, a hospitable gesture from the no-frills airline.