There's a lot of planning going on in the background.

You wait years for a presidential visit and then two come along within a week.

In six days' time, the 46th and current president of the United States,

Joe Biden is due to arrive in Belfast for what looks like a 24-hour visit.

Then three days later, the 42nd President Bill Clinton will be here to mark the 25th anniversary

of the Good Friday Agreement. And he'll be accompanied, of course, by his wife, who's a former

Secretary of State and presidential candidate herself. So you can imagine the phone conversations

and the security checks and the route planning that's going on behind the scenes right now.

On this week's red lines, we're looking ahead at what's to come and looking back on some

of the memorable recent visits in the company of three guests who know a thing or two

about what's involved in making it all happen. Mary Madden is a retired senior civil servant

who worked for the NIO for over 20 years.

Tom Kelly is a former director of communications at the NIO and from 2001 to 2007, the Prime

Minister's official spokesperson.

And Caroline Feeney is a former intern in the office of the then-Senator Hillary Clinton,

who's maintained a close connection to the former First Lady through the years.

So welcome to all of you, and thank you for joining us today.

Tom, President Biden's due to land here next Tuesday evening.

So I suppose it's T-minus six.

What's going on behind the scenes at this stage, do you imagine?

Well, a lot of frantic work, both here, I suspect, in London as well and in Washington.

The advance party will have scoped out where it thinks the president should go.

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