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RTÉ News: Six One is Radio Telefís Éireann's early evening news programme. It airs seven days a week at 6:00pm on RTÉ One.
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Format
The programme is regularly presented by Bryan Dobson accompanied by Sharon Ní Bheoláin, and is the only RTÉ News bulletin with two presenters. The programme starts with a segment covering the main news stories of the day. After the first commercial break, there is typically an interview with a person connected with the main news story. This is followed by shorter, more off-beat, or regional reports. The final third of the programme includes a sports summary (with a separate presenter) and a business news roundup.
During the summer months, Six One is usually contracted to a half-hour news bulletin. The summer break has however been getting shorter; in 2004, this lasted for only four weeks in August.
The programme is broadcast daily on RTÉ One. It can also be watched in full as a Real Player video stream from its associated Internet webpage.
History
Its predecessor programme was known as "Newstime". It went out at 18:00, but was preceded by an RTÉ News programme at 17:40. The programme's first lead male presenter, Seán Duignan, was later appointed Government Press Secretary by Albert Reynolds. In the early 1992 he was later replaced by Éamonn Lawlor, who later moved to RTÉ Lyric FM. He in turn was replaced by current incumbent Bryan Dobson.
Famous incidents on the bulletin
It established its own place in political history when the expected winner of the 1990 presidential election campaign, Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Brian Lenihan delivered what was universally accepted to be a disastrous live response to a crisis in his campaign. Seeking to deny that he had ever been part of unsuccessful efforts to force President Hillery to refuse a parliamentary dissolution in a way that would help Lenihan's party get back into power (claims he himself had made in an on-the-record taped interview recorded some months earlier), Lenihan tried to stare into the camera and told viewers that "on mature recollection" his earlier version was wrong and that he had made no phone calls to the presidential residence to put pressure on the President.
The programme also destroyed the political career of then Foreign Minister Gerard Collins, when on 7 November 1991 in response to a leadership struggle in his party, an overly emotional, tearful Collins pleaded with the man challenging for the leadership, Albert Reynolds, not to "wreck our party right down the centre" and "burst up government". Collins's own chances of leadership were perceived to have been destroyed by his performance on the live bulletin.
Why Six-One?
Since the 1950, RTÉ has broadcast a one minute period of silence except for the ringing of a church bell linked to the Angelus, a Catholic prayer, at 12.00 and 18.00. Though periodic calls have been made for its removal, a number of religious faiths outside Catholicism notably the Church of Ireland, have called for its continuation, regarding the minute as offering a chance for reflection amid a busy television schedule. (The broadcast no longer carries Catholic imagery, and instead focuses on images of people contemplating.) Because of this, the radio and television news bulletins start at one minute past six, hence the name.
Some broadcasters at RTÉ privately welcome the delayed start time in the belief that it gives viewers a chance to catch the headlines on BBC, UTV or Sky News before switching over to catch the start of Six One.
Some critics have mounted a campaign to abolish the Angelus on RTÉ. It is unclear whether RTÉ would move its bulletin back one minute to 6:00pm as that would mean that the newscast would be in direct competition to get viewers at the exact same time as other stations.
See also
Other RTÉ News programmes include:
External links
- RTÉ News homepage
- Six One News webpage — lists recent Six One News programs and links to their Real player streams
- RTÉ News TV Index — lists all recent RTÉ News programs and links to their Real player streams
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