Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

RT celebrates Irish culture through festive food and musical specials this Christmas

03/12/2024

RT celebrates Irish culture through festive food and musical specials this Christmas

Christmas in Kildare on Christmas Eve on RT One, RT Player and RT lyric fm

A wide and varied selection of music specials on RT Radio 1 and RT 2FM

Culinary inspiration with a wide range of cooking specials on RT Player

In the second of a week of Christmas programming announcements, RT will indulge viewers in festive treats with a selection of Irish music specials and Irish culinary offerings with inspiration and the best tips to entertain guests this festive season. Marty Whelan and Celine Byrne will be hosting Christmas carols in Christmas in Kildare featuring some of the biggest names in Irish music including Paul Noonan from Bell X1, Lisa Hannigan, Kingfishr and Grammy Award winner, Rhiannon Giddens to name a few. RT will also air some of the best music documentaries and radio features including Henry Mount Charles: A Lord in Slane, Nanci Griffith - From A Distance and David O'Doherty and his Dad do Jazz. Neven Maguire's Neven's Christmas at Cashel along with Rory O'Connell's How to Cook Well at Christmas will feature as part of a feast of festive food specials on offer across RT this Christmas season.

Christmas Carols in Kildare

A musical delight this December, RT invites audiences to join in a celebration of the season on Christmas Eve with a spectacular concert, Christmas in Kildare, hosted by soprano Celine Byrne and presenter Marty Whelan at 8.40pm on RT One and RT lyric fm, and RT Player. Featuring the RT Concert Orchestra alongside an extraordinary lineup of artists, set against the stunning backdrop of the historic St. Brigid's Cathedral in the heart of Kildare, this a concert not to be missed. This year's performers include May Kay, Paul Noonan of Bell X1, Lisa Hannigan, M av N Mhaolchatha, and Colm Mac Con Iomaire. Also joining the celebrations are the 25-strong all-female choir Dulciana, rising stars Kingfishr, the Theodora Byrne ensemble, Grammy Award-winning artist Rhiannon Giddens and the afore mentioned world renowned soprano and another Kildare native, Celine Byrne.

Music Specials on RT Radio 1 and 2FM

On RT Radio 1 this December, kick-start the festive listening with Around The World at Christmas with Loah at 8pm on Christmas Eve.

To get the Christmas Day festivities underway Christmas Miscellany will air at 9am offering a magical mix of words and music recorded in early December at an annual event at the National Concert Hall with the RT Concert Orchestra, featuring special guests.

David O'Doherty and his dad will bring listeners on a relaxing jazz journey as they reminisce by a grand piano at 5pm on Christmas Day in David O'Doherty and his Dad do Jazz.

Acclaimed Irish songwriter Oisin Leech will take listeners on a lyrical journey with tunes for the heart and soul in a Christmas Caravan Radio Special from 6pm.

Finishing off Christmas Day and Stephen's Day with interviews before worldwide fame, directly after it and on through the 90s right up to a couple from the past four years, Dave Fanning will deep-dive into the incredible career and life of one of Ireland's most important artists, Sin ad O'Connor in Dave and Sin ad from 7pm.

As the year draws to a close, a new series, Routes, will ask the simple but profound question, How did I get here?' Each episode will weave together the meandering adventures and musical biography of a special guest starting with Rick Epping, originally from Southern California who decided to settle in the quiet south Sligo townland of Carrickbanaghar. Tune in on New Year's Eve at 12pm on RT Radio 1.

Ringing in the New Year, Louise Duffy will host Damien Dempsey in a Studio 8 Session at 12pm.

And on 2FM this Christmas Day catch-up on all of the biggest and best music and entertainment stories of the year with Lottie Ryan and Conor Behan.

Across the festive season 2FM will have celebrity takeovers where some well-known names in Irish entertainment will be handed control of the Christmas playlist. First up is Chubby Cat followed by Davina Devine.

The legendary 2FM Christmas Quiz will air on St. Stephen's Day where presenters will be pitted against each other to see who comes out victorious and has bragging rights for the next 12 months.

Music on RT lyric fm

Lorcan Murray and RT lyric fm will be bringing the Christmas cheer on Christmas Eve with Lorcan Murray's Classic Drive from 4pm. Aed n Gormley will have an hour long special of her favourite mellow seasonal music in O che Chi in With Aed n Gormley from 8pm.

Marty in the Morning will be waking up listeners on Christmas morning, with a feast of festive tunes, carols and some of his best Christmas cracker jokes from 8am. Tune in to Centuries Of Christmas With Vlad Smishkewych with a millennium of music for this special festive day from 10am. Paul Herriott will bring us a playlist of Christmas music from around the world with Christmas Around The World With Paul Herriott from 7pm. Finally, George Hamiliton will be stepping in for The Full Score with Liz Nolan from 1pm on St. Stephen's Day, bringing listeners a Christmas Concert from La Scala Orchestra and Chorus with Daniel Harding conducting Kirill Gerstein, piano for Beethoven's Choral Fantasy.

Music Documentaries

Finally, to round out the musical offering this festive season, RT will be showcasing an exciting selection of documentaries with Henry Mount Charles: A Lord in Slane on Friday 27th of December, Nanci Griffith - From A Distance on Sunday 29th of December and The Great Pretenders on Monday 30th of December - all available on RT One and RT Player.

Henry Mount Charles A Lord in Slane looks at Lord Henry Mount Charles, the bankrupt estate he inherited and a music festival that would change the world of Irish entertainment
LINK: https://about.rte.ie/2024/12/03/rte-celebrates-irish-culture-through-f...
See more stories from rte

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

07/04/2026

Avid to Debut Avid Content Core on AWS at 2026 NAB Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/04/2026

Frequency Launches Smarter Ways to Operate Streaming Chan...

Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's leading streaming television channels, at NAB 2026 will be launching new Studio services to help content ow...

07/04/2026

Ikegami to Introduce Expanded Range of Broadcast Producti...

Ikegami USA has chosen NAB 2026 in Las Vegas as the launch platform for new additions to its range of broadcast-quality television production equipment. These w...

07/04/2026

Kiloview Advancing Broadcast IP Workflows with a Smarter...

April 19, 2026, Las Vegas Kiloview, an innovative provider of AV-over-IP technologies, will showcase its latest broadcast IP solutions at NAB 2026, presenting...

07/04/2026

Bitmovin Adds Support for SGAI in its Playback Products t...

Bitmovin has announced support for Server-Guided Ad Insertion (SGAI) across its playback products using HLS interstitials, enabling more advanced ad-supported s...

07/04/2026

Synamedia unveils AI by Quortex - a just-in-time AI-plugi...

Synamedia is unveiling AI by Quortex at The NAB show, a just-in-time AI plugin framework that applies intelligence only when needed across video processing, dis...

07/04/2026

Cuez Brings Four New Innovations to NAB 2026 From Story-C...

Cuez will showcase four additions to its cloud-based newsroom, rundown and automation platform at NAB Show 2026 (April 18 22, Las Vegas, Booth N1867): Cuez ...

07/04/2026

Barix Extends Transport Options for Multi-Engine IP Encoder

Barix Extends Transport Options for Multi-Engine IP Encoder Brie Clayton April 7, 2026 0 Comments New for NAB, Barix adds SRT and RIST support to Mult...

07/04/2026

Elite Media Technologies Selects Interra Systems' BATON File-Based QC Solution

Elite Media Technologies Selects Interra Systems' BATON File-Based QC Soluti...

07/04/2026

Tightrope Media Systems to Debut Cablecast LiveBridge for Simultaneous Streaming at NAB 2026

Tightrope Media Systems to Debut Cablecast LiveBridge for Simultaneous Streaming...

07/04/2026

Cuez Brings Four New Innovations to NAB 2026: From Story-Centric Newsroom to Open AI Agent Framework

Cuez Brings Four New Innovations to NAB 2026: From Story-Centric Newsroom to Ope...

07/04/2026

ASG Names Andrea Cummis VP of Systems Engineering

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/04/2026

KTVJ Completes Major Signal Upgrade

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/04/2026

Hearst's WDSU to Air Million Dollar Rodeo Competition

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/04/2026

Grass Valley Launches Future Playmakers Program

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

07/04/2026

Saranyu Technologies Launches MATCH - Multi-View Sports S...

Designed for synchronized multi-stream playback, low-latency delivery, and real-time analytics, MATCH introduces a unified viewing experience for sports broadca...

07/04/2026

Berklee Students to Honor George Martin with Performance of Original Scores

Berklee Students to Honor George Martin with Performance of Original Scores The orchestra, led by associate professor Xander Rovang, will perform several work...

06/04/2026

Fab Five' Reunion Drives TNT and CBS's Experimental Final Four Altcast Built on REMI Workflow

Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...

06/04/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Optikka CEO Daniel Evans on Scaling Sports Content with Programmatic Graphics

From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...

06/04/2026

Quickplay and TwelveLabs Join AWS Business Outcomes Xcelerator Program

Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...

06/04/2026

Grass Valley Launches Future Playmakers Program for Students in Sports Production and Media Technology

Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...

06/04/2026

SVG All-Stars: Raasean Robinson, Gerente de Posproduccin y Operaciones de Estudio, FOX Deportes

El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...

06/04/2026

SVG All-Stars: Raasean Robinson, Manager, Post Production and Studio Operations, FOX Deportes

The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...

06/04/2026

Behind The Mic: SiriusXM Shares 2026 Masters Broadcast Team; ESPN to Produce Over 140+ Hours of Masters Live Coverage

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...

06/04/2026

NHL Opens Innovation Lab in Partnership with Verizon, New Jersey Devils

The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...

06/04/2026

ESPN+ To Stream Inaugural Rock League Curling Season

Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...

06/04/2026

ASG Appoints Andrea Cummis as VP of Systems Design and Engineering

Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...

06/04/2026

Source Media Group Launches Source Golf, a Creator-Driven YouTube Network Targeting Next-Gen Fans

Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...

06/04/2026

How the NHL's Innovation Lab Will Take Broadcast, Fan, and Team Tech to New Heights

With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...

06/04/2026

K-Pop Artist ENHYPEN Host The Blood Diary,' a New Video Podcast Series From HYBE

Like the immortal lives of vampires, some stories never really end. That's t...

06/04/2026

From Audio to IRL: How Let's Get Haunted' Is Building Community With Spotify RADAR

As podcasting continues to evolve, growth increasingly means building beyond aud...

06/04/2026

FSK Audio update Bark24 Dyn

Multiband dynamics plug-in enhanced California-based developer FSK Audio have released a significant update for their innovative multiband dynamics processo...

06/04/2026

IK Multimedia introduce ToneNET Preset Sharing

Share official & user-created full-rig presets IK Multimedia's latest TONEX update makes it possible for users of the popular amp and effects modelling ...

06/04/2026

Baseball 2026: More AI, Better Viewing Choices

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/04/2026

JB&A Announces Details for its Pre-NAB 2026 Event

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/04/2026

Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026

Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026 Brie Clayton April 6, 2026 0 Comments Dalet, a leading technology and...

06/04/2026

OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show's West Hall

OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...

06/04/2026

Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026

Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026 Brie Clayton April 6, 2026 0 Comments Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...

06/04/2026

Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026

Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026 Brie Clayton April 6, 2026 0 Comments Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...

06/04/2026

Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Show 2026

Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...

06/04/2026

Re-Architectured PCC Software Streamlines and Enhances the Full High-Speed Imaging Workflow

Wayne, N.J., April 6th, 2026 Phantom High-Speed announces the release of PCC 4...

06/04/2026

Tribeca Studios And Lilly Announce Winners Of Inaugural Vital Stories Filmmaker Program

April 6th, 2026 TRIBECA STUDIOS AND LILLY ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL VITAL...

06/04/2026

Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App for Games, New Shows & Returning Favorites

Back to All News Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...

05/04/2026

Latest SoundBridge update now live

Tackles all reported bugs! SoundBridge have just announced the launch of a new update that introduces a couple of minor changes to their remote collaboratio...