LOW FINISTERRE 1007 LOSING ITS IDENTITY BY THE SAME TIME <br /> <br /> <br />It’s BBC Radio 4 <br />but the familiar <br /> <br />litany of <br />THE SHIPPING FORECAST <br /> <br />is alas...maimed <br />not the same. <br /> <br />They changed <br />a national institution <br /> <br />of the mind <br />redeveloped the mental landscape. <br /> <br />They have even dare to have it <br />moved <br /> <br />by 15 minutes <br />and renamed <br /> <br />FINISTERRE <br />...FITZROY. <br /> <br />Like <br />...why? <br /> <br />It isn’t cricket <br />...is it? <br /> <br />This the beloved <br />Lord’s Prayer of places. <br /> <br />Not even a great British <br />outrage could save it <br /> <br />change <br />the changes. <br /> <br />For years <br />its well worn sounds <br /> <br />embedded in <br />our head <br /> <br />the national psyche <br /> <br />as we drifted off <br />to sleep <br /> <br />perchance to dream <br />with SAILING BY. <br /> <br />But secretly we recite <br />night by night <br /> <br />re-instating <br />FINISTERRE <br /> <br />letting FITZROY <br />sink to the bottom of our minds <br /> <br />drown <br /> <br />as we cuddle up <br />to the long loved <br /> <br />old familiar <br />sounds. <br /> <br /> <br />******* <br /> <br />Consternation was caused when a name change was brought about in Feb.2002 and the well known and well worn sound of FINISTERRE was transformed into FITZROY. It was as if one had attacked a living person...a great British institution and there was uproar and pandemonium. <br /> <br />But FITZROY won the day and the man who carried Darwin on the BEAGLE and invented the weather forecast was the new sound in town. He was a Christian creationist and never forgave himself for evolving Darwin and indeed committed suicide later on in life over the grief of this.) <br /> <br />I prefer the world’s end feeling and sound of FINISTERRE but...there ya are!<br /><br />Dónall Dempsey<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/low-finisterre-1007-losing-its-identity-by-the-same-time/
