Can’t get ng-show/ng-hide to work in ion-header inside ion-modal-view ionic

I am using ng-show/ng-hide to switch between two different header titles. It works in the browser but does not work in android (4.1) in a cordova app. I also tried using ng-switch and also ng-if, but the same net result.

<ion-modal-view>         <<<<< it works OK when not in an $ionicModal
 <ion-header-bar>
  <h1 class="title" >
    <span ng-hide="clipboardMsg">{{title()}}</span>
    <span ng-show="clipboardMsg" class="clipboard-msg">{{clipboardMsg}}</span>
  </h1>
  <button class="button button-clear button-primary" ng-click="close()">Close</button>
 </ion-header-bar>
 ...

Apologies for the cross-post but I will really appreciate some help.