Nationwide is a television programme shown in Ireland each Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening at 19:00. Produced by RTàCork, and broadcast on RTàOne for around 30 minutes, it is presented by Anne Cassin and Bláthnaid NàChofaigh, after long-serving presenter Mary Kennedy reached RTÃÂ's retirement age in 2019. Nationwide focuses on human interest stories and cultural events across the country.
Nationwide is presented in the form of, most often, two on-site recordings, with one advertising break between them. It has aimed to regionalise news and human interest content, as RTÃÂ has worked to do previously, 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, but this has now ceased.
Nationwide began broadcasting in 1993. It was conceived by Michael Ryan, who presented for many years until he retired from RTÃÂ in 2011. On occasion he was replaced by news reporter/presenter Flor MacCarthy.
In its early years, Nationwide broadcasts largely comprised regional stories from RTÃÂ'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 RTÃÂ Regional correspondent in the 1990s. The series then moved to Cork and became an RTÃÂ Cork production.
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 RTÃÂ's Cork Studios. By the end of the 1990s the series was being broadcast three nights a week â Monday, Wednesday and Friday â at 19:00 and the presentation of the show took place in local towns and cities across the country.
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 magazine series called Capital D.
As part of its 20th anniversary, RTÃÂ commissioned Brian Byrne to compose a new theme for Nationwide. The music was recorded by the RTÃÂ Concert Orchestra. New opening credits were created by Nobo's Niall ÃÂ hOisin and Niall Campion with footage filmed by RTÃÂ Cameraman Paul Deighan.
Blathnáid NàChofaigh joined as a presenter in 2020, after Mary Kennedy's retirement from RTÃÂ.
Helen McInerney, Niall Martin, Mary Fanning, Mary Harte, Helen Mark, Valarie Waters, Marian Malone, Zainab Boladale and John Kilraine.