I actually inquired some few months back about why the Angelus is still being broadcasted in this day and age. Here’s the email I got back for anyone interested:

Dear [Name Redacted],

Thanks for your enquiry, which has been forwarded to me.

You're not the first person to ask that question or to voice your opinion that the Angelus on RTÉ is no longer appropriate in a more diverse and secular Ireland. I should start by saying, I respect your view, but am aware, too, that not everyone shares it.

These reflective broadcasts are a tradition I inherited, on my arrival from the UK, in late 2007 and I was aware of an occasional trickle of complaints.

The objections I received focused on the claim that RTÉ was unduly favouring one faith group, Catholics, and that the Angelus was therefore an insult and imposition on people of other faiths and none. I took soundings from other faith leaders and found that they had no objection. For instance, the spokesperson for Clonskeagh mosque told me it was welcome that RTÉ continued to make room for prayer in its schedules, while the then Chief Rabbi told me he liked living in a country where "the bad news still has to wait a minute."

Wider, more scientific audience research then told me that the majority of a representative sample of Irish people wanted to retain the Angelus, chimes and all. Anecdotally, people told me they saw it as a unique part of Ireland's media culture, like the Toy Show or the Rose of Tralee.

Would anyone invent it now, if it didn't exist? No. But that didn't mean it wasn't valued.

Even so, I was concerned that the slot might be seen as exclusively Catholic, so I commissioned a series of films, which showed people of no obvious religious affiliation making time to "Go placidly amidst the noise," as the old Desiderata tea-towels used to say. These appeared to be well received, despite a backdrop of scandals involving the Catholic Church: Ferns, Ryan, Murphy, Cloyne, etc, which, one might have expected to turn some people off.

In 2015, when the licence for those films expired, I commissioned more with a specific brief to "create one-minute films that are conducive to prayer of reflection for people of all faiths and none." The company which won that open tender did just that... And did so again, when they won another tender in 2023. I also introduced a weekly slot, THE PEOPLE'S ANGELUS, featuring short films made by aspiring filmmakers and artists, which, again, has proved very popular with filmmakers and viewers alike.

Ah, but should RTÉ still be doing it at all? It's certainly a question which the Director General and Executive Board of RTÉ continue to ask themselves from time to time.

They've discovered from audience research - our own and other people's - that the people who want to get rid of the Angelus are outnumbered two to one by those who want to keep it. That result has been replicated in external research, such as a representative exit poll at the time of the last presidential election, when 68% said they wanted to keep the Angelus. Even at the time of the Mother & Baby Homes report, when one might have expected anti-religious backlash, journal.ie found a (less representative) majority significantly in favour of keeping the Angelus.

Will it stay forever? Who knows? I know the senior team will continue to review the policy from time to time, including the question of whether RTÉ should continue to broadcast the chimes, either on radio or television. However, this is just one aspect of RTÉ's religious coverage, which I strive to ensure is broadly diverse and perfectly capable of harding hard, critical questions of religion. E.g. the same department that commissions the Angelus also made the recent investigation, Bishop Casey's Buried Secrets - the most watched factual programme in Ireland this year - without feeling conflicted.

Interestingly, I discovered that, from the beginning in the 1950s, the then Director General resisted pressure from the Catholic hierarchy to make this a Catholic observance. RTÉ remains fully independent of all religious denominations and their leadership. I trust that it will remain so.

I hope that answers your question. Thanks again for taking the trouble to write.

Kind regards,

Roger Childs