Above: Click play to watch the interview
As the Republican National Convention winds down, delegates and guests are taking in the last of the parties and arranging for transportation to the airport. & The estimated 15,000 journalists and media technicians are packing up their gear, preparing for the trip home.
Some can drive back to their stations in or near Minnesota. Others fly as far as to coastal cities like San Diego and New York. Still others journey home to Pakistan or Kenya or Ireland. Yes, there were large numbers of foreign print, web, and broadcast professionals at both conventions, including one team that shared our radio row spaces in Denver and St. Paul. Generous and cooperative they were and I can't imagine better neighbors in tight quarters than the group from RTE ( Radio Television Ireland ).
So before we said goodbye, I couldn't resist doing my final interview with Fiona Hearst, the web writer for RTE, to find out why all this interest in U.S. presidential possibilities.
I think you'll find her responses candid, fascinating, and a charming window on the world outside of our borders. & Think "blood links" between candidates and the Irish, who has them and who doesn't, and why this is important to the Irish. & And when it comes to which issues interest an Irish audience, Fiona Hearst lists immigration, the economy, and, of course, the situation in the Middle East. & This definitely echoes some concerns right here at home.
