Nationwide (Irish TV programme)

Nationwide is a television programme shown in Ireland each Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening at 19:00. Produced by RTÉ Cork,[1] and broadcast on RTÉ One for around 30 minutes, it is presented by Anne Cassin and Mary Kennedy. Nationwide focuses on human interest stories and cultural events across the country. In 2019, Mary Kennedy stepped down from presenting Nationwide, as she reached the mandatory retirement age set by RTÉ. Blathnáid Ní Chofaigh took over presenting duties alongside current presenter Anne Cassin in January 2020.

Nationwide
Nationwide (2006 - 2013)
Genre	Factual, regional news
Presented by	Michael Ryan (1993 - 2011) Mary Kennedy (2004 - 2019) Anne Cassin (2011 - present) Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh (2020 - present)
Theme music composer	Brian Byrne
Opening theme	Nationwide Theme
Ending theme	Nationwide Theme
Country of origin	Ireland
Original languages	English, Irish
Production
Production location	Various
Editor	Eoin Ryan
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	RTÉ
Release
Original network	RTÉ One
Original release	24 October 1993 – present
External links
Website

Format

Nationwide serves a similar purpose to the occasional RTÉ attempts to regionalise news and human interest content in the past,[2] albeit without the increased technology and transmission costs, which would likely require total re-engineering of the country's transmission and cable television networks. Nationwide itself was the sole programme regionalised in recent times,[3] but this has now ceased.

History

Nationwide began broadcasting in 1993. It is the brainchild of Michael Ryan, who presented for many years until he retired from RTÉ in 2011.[4] On occasion he was replaced by news reporter Flo McSweeney.

In its early years, Nationwide was largely made up of regional stories from RTÉ's local news correspondents. The series was presented from a studio from 1993 until 2000 when the series began to tour towns and cities around the country. The original series studio came from the city of Waterford, as Micheal Ryan was RTÉ Regional correspondent in the 1990s. The series then moved to Cork and became an RTÉ Cork production.[5]

During its original run it was broadcast every second Sunday, pre-record in a room rented by Micheal Ryan from a Photographer in Waterford City, later it would move to RTÉ's Cork Studios. By the end of the 1990s the series was being broadcast 3 night a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 19:00 and the presentation of the show took place in local towns and cities across the country.[5]

Cartoonist Terry Willers had a regional paper slot every Friday up until the end of the 1990s. Ryan was joined in 2004 by Mary Kennedy as a co-presenter.

Ryan retired from Nationwide in 2011, with the announcement that Anne Cassin would replace him as co-presenter after the ending of her current role as presenter of a Dublin-based series called Capital D.[6]

As part of its 20th anniversary, RTÉ commissioned Brian Byrne to compose a new theme for Nationwide. The music was recorded by the RTÉ Concert Orchestra. New opening credits were created by Nobo's Niall Ó hOisin and Niall Campion with footage filmed by RTÉ Cameraman Paul Deighan.[5]

Correspondents

Alastair Jackson, Ciaran Malluly, Helen McInerney, Rowan Hand, Mary Fannin, Deirdre McCarthy,[5] and Zainab Boladale.[7]

References

1. "Nationwide". RTÉ. Retrieved 1 June 2009.
2. "RTE Regional TV experiments". Archived from the original on 3 March 2015.
3. "Nationwide Here and Now". Archived from the original on 3 March 2015.
4. Sweeney, Ken (1 December 2010). "Michael bids farewell as RTÉ tells him he will no longer front Nationwide". Irish Independent. Retrieved 1 December 2010.
5. "Nationwide25102013". RTÉ. Retrieved 25 October 2013.
6. "Cassin is new Nationwide co-presenter". RTÉ. 20 December 2011. Archived from the original on 4 March 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2011.
7. Hilliard, Mark. "'It's very clear what's racist,' says RTÉ presenter after online abuse". The Irish Times. Retrieved 14 June 2020.