Tuesday, May 13th, 2025
Today might have been one of the most exciting days of the trip. We had two activities planned: a visit to RTÉ, Ireland’s public television and radio broadcaster, and an Irish dance class!
As mentioned in the introductory post, I am a graduate student, getting my Masters in Multimedia; but prior to that I got my Bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Production and Media Management. That being said, I always get really enthusiastic about visiting different broadcasters and touring their studio and control room spaces. I have been very fortunate up to this point to have seen so many prominent control rooms and witness where the magic of television happens.
Studios and control rooms I have seen thus far:
- PNC Park
- Madison Square Garden
- NBC‘s “Today” Show
and now, my first international: RTÉ!
I was very excited to see how television studios work overseas in comparison to the States. I won’t go into too much depth here because I am going to be writing a longer story about RTÉ and the experience for the website (so stay tuned for that!)
What I can say is that there are distinct differences between the two. I was fortunate enough to get ahold of a marked copy of their rundown so I could follow along during their 1:00 PM program (which is really cool), but that is also how I learned of the differences – specifically in names of things. The jobs and roles are all the same universally, but they were called different things, which was a little challenging to understand at first.
During our RTÉ visit we also listened to 2 guest speakers: Brian Dowling and Brian O’Donovan (easy enough to remember, since they’re both named Brian). Brian Dowling is RTÉ‘s Regulator and Brian O’Donovan is RTÉ‘s Work and Technology Correspondent as well as the previous International Correspondent in Washington D.C. from 2018 to 2021.
Brian Dowling deals with the complaints received about the broadcasts. He went into detail about RTÉ‘s emphasis on reporters and debaters responsibility to control debates and refute false claims. RTÉ has a high standard of reporting fair (various viewpoints) and accurate reporting.
Brian O’Donovan spent time discussing his career as both the Washington Correspondent and as the Work and Technology Correspondent (working with trade unions and big tech companies like Google, TikTok, etc.). Like Dowling, O’Donovan emphasized the importance of dual perspectives and making sure to have at least 2 sources within a story to tell the most fair and accurate story you can tell.
The discussions with both Dowling and O’Donovan were informative and interesting. They discussed topics I’ve spent the last 4 years learning about and practicing in my college career. And it was very cool to see it applied not only professionally, but internationally.
Later that evening…
We had a dance class at the Centre. Out of all our cultural activities, this one might have been my favorite! I loved listening to the music and hearing our teacher explain traditional Irish instruments and animatedly retell Celtic myths.
The 4 Traditional Irish Instruments are:
- Harp
- Flute
- Drum
- Bagpipe
(These are not their technical names, but this is an elementary recollection of each)
We learned 3 dances during our lesson. They were energetic and required quite a bit of movement, but they were so fun! I truly haven’t laughed so hard in ages. Although I wasn’t perfect (I kept going left first rather than right because I’m left handed), but I picked up the steps fairly fast and giggled the entire time. The music was also just so fun, it made me realize that I wish it was still a norm in society to listen to traditional music and dance “choreographed” dances. I just wish that I could remember what the dances and songs were called 🙁
Videos from the dance class!
Videos taken by Dr. Robin Cecala or Dr. Heather Fiedler.
The dance class was definitely in my top three moments on this trip!