Responding to a National Crisis

Content and programming to support audiences

RTÉ with Leaving and Junior Cycle students every step of the way

To support our Leaving and Junior Certificate students, and their parents, during tough times created by the global pandemic, RTÉ introduced a series of programmes and initiatives across our services.

These included: Shakespeare on Sunday on RTÉ2 during Sundays in January and February; making available a range of online teaching modules and worksheets for the Junior Cycle syllabus, devised and produced in association and partnership with Junior Cycle Teachers; a bilingual programme, StaidAir with Bláthnaid Treacy on 2fm to support students preparing for the Irish oral exam; LC 21 with Carl Mullan aired from Monday to Thursday at 7pm on 2fm for three weeks and created a community for students and focused on study planning, with advice on looking after themselves over the crucial pre-exam months.

RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta presented a regular slot on Tús Áite each week when Fachtna Ó Drisceoil spoke to guests about the challenges they were facing and how they were dealing with home schooling. RTÉ Player ran a series of science, history and natural world documentaries for Junior Cycle and Senior Cycle students.

Back by Popular Demand

In January, RTÉ’s Home School Hub and After School Hub made a return to RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, delivering three hours of television daily, with a mix of new material and previously aired shows, offering a helping hand to parents. Young viewers could find John, Ray, Cliona, Seamus and all the gang on RTÉ2 between 10am and noon, with their fun and interactive curriculum-based learning, which was warmly received when it first aired in March 2020. At 3.20pm daily After School Hub re-showed its daily activities, ranging from music lessons to science experiments, dance classes, art and crafts, and books and culture. All corresponding worksheets, podcasts and third-party content were housed on www.rte.ie/learn/ and could be watched back on the RTÉ Player. An Irish Sign Language (ISL) version of the programme also aired on RTÉjr on weekdays at 1pm and an ISL programme, After School Hub Best Bits, aired on Saturdays and Sundays on RTÉjr. All ISL versions of Home School Hub are also available on RTÉ Player.

A Historic Late Late Show St. Patrick’s Day Special

Traditionally, hundreds of thousands of people flock to Ireland to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, with parades and celebrations also taking place across the world. Last year, as public events were cancelled, The Late Late Show became a global hub for St. Patrick’s Day celebrations, uniting Irish people everywhere for a very special evening of entertainment. The Late Late Show broke with tradition and broadcast on a Wednesday night for the first time in its nearly 60-year history as Irish people from across the world were invited to be part of a virtual audience on the night. As host Ryan Tubridy said, ‘Since the pandemic hit, we have made it our business to embrace Ireland like never before on The Late Late Show and show the best of who we are, and that is what we are going continue to do on St. Patrick’s Day, and in some style. We want you, the Irish abroad, to be a part of this evening in our virtual audience, to join in with family and friends watching here back home.’

The St. Patrick’s Day Late Late Show was available to viewers around the world on RTÉ Player.

Free Laptops for Students

In February, RTÉ launched the Tech2Students campaign to get laptops to students who needed them most around the country. An initiative by Camara Education Ireland and Trinity Access (Trinity College Dublin), Tech2Students sought to bridge the digital divide so no one would be left behind as learning continued online in 2021.

Tech2Students had been repurposing laptops and Chromebooks for Leaving Cert students from disadvantaged groups including those in DEIS schools, in direct provision, adult learners in vulnerable groups, as well as youth groups such as Foróige and An Cosán. RTÉ gave its support to supersize the initiative and we brought An Post on board as delivery partner alongside ESB, NUI Galway Access Centre and Rethink Ireland, extending the reach and impact of the initiative.

Keeping The Kids Entertained

To support children and their families during midterm and Halloween, RTÉ produced exciting new and returning shows and series, featuring art, outdoors adventures, new animation, short films, movies, and spooky Halloween specials to keep younger viewers entertained during the midterm break. Leading the charge, Irish comic book artist Will Sliney and an all-star cast of characters, including Aisling Bea, Laura Whitmore and Dermot Whelan brought an amazing new art show with a difference to RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Will Sliney’s Storytellers was part drawing show and part animated adventure, teaching budding young artists using the most powerful weapon in the world – a pencil. Clare Dunne also starred in a short film, X Marks the Spot on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player.

Animating Online Safety for Pre-school Kids

Produced by Dublin-based award-winning animation studio Kavaleer, Alva’s World was a fun and irreverent new animation series, on RTÉjr and RTÉ Player, which gave pre-schoolers the tools they needed to understand and tackle problems with life online. Produced for RTÉjr and Sky in advance of Safer Internet Day, Alva’s World explored online safety through the eyes of Alva, our pint-sized heroine, her family and pet robot, Mo, as they pitted against the plots of three duplicitous dunderheads – the Trolls of Gizmo. The show aimed to provide a much-needed set of water-wings for a generation of children who will find themselves in at the deep end of life online in a few short years. Gizmo is the world that echoes the internet environment and social media landscape, with all its wonders and risks. Kids were drawn in through fun stories and compelling characters, but subtly taught about – and given tools for solving – problems they will undoubtedly face.

Challenging Misinformation

In May, RTÉ News launched a brand-new four-part podcast series The Truth Matters: A Guide to Misinformation, which was presented and produced by Irish journalists, Della Kilroy and Shane Creevy. The series explored how misinformation spreads in an era of mass communication and shared advice on how to protect yourself against it. In a year which has seen a rapid increase in the spread of false information, this new series examined the differences between misinformation and disinformation and investigated how and why conspiracy theories spread so rapidly online.

The podcast aimed to arm the listener with the skills to identify misinformation and play their part in combating the spread online. By speaking to journalists, authors, civil rights activists and digital experts, Della and Shane learned how to talk to friends who believe conspiracy theories and how, by using empathy, listeners would be able to approach those who they know to be going down the conspiracy rabbit hole.