Palm Sunday, 24/3/24
11.00-11.45 Sunday Service The Rev. Dr Maithrie White-Dundas leads a Church of Ireland Service in the RTÉ studios, in Donnybrook, with members of the All Ireland Primate’s Reference Group on Ethnic Diversity, Inclusion & Racial Justice. Music is by the Discovery Gospel Choir led by Abdul Saidi. (RTÉ One & RTÉ Radio 1 Extra)
14.15-15.00 Mass for Palm Sunday from The Church of the Annunciation, Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin. Celebrant still TBC. (RTÉ News Channel)
Holy Thursday, 28/3/24
16.40-17.35 Mass of the Lord’s Supper, celebrated by Fr Joe Campbell with students and staff of Sacred Heart School, Tullamore, Co. Offaly. (RTÉ One. Repeated on RTÉ Radio 1 Extra at 19.00)
Good Friday, 29/3/24
15.00-16.00 Solemn Liturgy for Good Friday from St Mary’s Cathedral, Kilkenny. The Liturgy of the Passion of the Lord is led by the Very Rev. Dermot Ryan, Adm and concelebrant the Very Rev. Tom Coyle; music is led by St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, directed by Sean O’Neill, the organist is Joy Bibby. (RTÉ One & RTÉ Radio 1 Extra)
15.00-16.00 Searmanas na Páise: Searmanas Aoine an Chéasta beo ó Shéipéal Ghobnatan i gCúil Aodha, Co. Chorcaigh. (Raidio na Gaeltachta)
16.00-16.45 Canon Paul Willoughby leads Good Friday liturgy in St James’ Church of Ireland Church, Durrus, Co. Cork. (RTÉ News Channel)
1900-22.00 Live with Paul Herriott. Paul Herriott brings us Bach’s St Matthew Passion live from the stage of the National Concert Hall in Dublin. This magisterial re-telling of the Easter Story, Bach’s St Matthew Passion is arguably the greatest of all musical masterpieces. Deeply moving, intensely felt and boasting dark-hued music of exquisite beauty, it’s also a drama of tremendous urgency and striking intimacy. David Young conducts the National Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, with Gavan Ring (Christus), Dan D’Souza (Jesus), Michael Mofidian (Pilate), and soprano Kelli-Ann Masterson, alto Bethany Horak-Hallett, tenor Liam Bonthrone, and Cór na nÓg. (RTÉ Lyric FM)
22.00-22.30 Witness, with Siobhán Garrigan. A special exploration of Easter themes, featuring the Rev. Kiran Young Wimberly, a musician and Presbyterian Minister, who lives with her husband and family in the Corrymeela Centre for Peace & Reconciliation, in Co. Antrim; Fr Tudor Ghita, a Romanian Orthodox priest in Galway; and a visit by Siobhán to Ballintubber Abbey, Co. Mayo, to see the Stations of the Cross created by Imogen Stuart. (RTÉ Radio 1)
Holy Saturday, 30/3/24
1900-22.00 Opera Night with Paul Herriott. The Metropolitan Opera, New York presents Verdi’s Requiem. Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts tonight’s performance of Verdi’s soul-stirring Requiem, a unique and towering masterpiece that stands as one of the repertory’s great showcases of vocal, choral & orchestral writing. A thrilling quartet of soloists joins the magnificent Met Orchestra and Chorus: soprano Leah Hawkins, mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, tenor Matthew Polenzani, and bass Dmitry Belosselskiy. (RTÉ Lyric FM)
23.00-00.15 Easter Vigil Mass of the Lord’s Resurrection from St Mary’s Cathedral, Kilkenny is celebrated by the Most Rev Niall Coll, Bishop of Ossory, with the Very Rev Dermot Ryan, Adm, the Very Rev. Jim Murphy and the Very Rev Tom Coyle concelebrating, alongside members of the Dominican Black Abbey Community and the Capuchin Friary Community. Music is led by St Mary’s Cathedral Choir, directed by Sean O’Neill; the organist is Joy Bibby. (RTÉ One & RTÉ Radio 1 Extra)
Easter Sunday, 31/3/24
07.00 – 10.00 Vox Nostra. On this Easter Sunday, Vlad Smishkewych explores the origins of the oratorio by way of its Roman roots with Stradella, Carissimi and other Italians. Vlad also takes in music by the Italian-leaning German composer, Heinrich Schütz, all of whom influenced none other than Handel, when he composed English-language oratorios such as the Messiah. (RTÉ Lyric FM)
10.00-11.00 Mass for Easter Sunday. A Eurovision Mass from the Church of Saint-Remy in Profondeville, in Belgium. The celebrant and preacher is Fr Didier Croonenberghs O.P.; Fr Paul Yon concelebrates; the choir is directed by Jasmine Daoud accompanied by Philippe Frippiat on the organ.Commentary and translation are by Michael Kelly.
11.00-11.45 Presbyterian Easter Service led by the Rev. William Hayes (RTÉ One & RTÉ Radio 1 Extra)
11.00-11.45 Aifreann an Domhnaigh: Aifreann an Domhnaigh ó Shéipéal Ghobnatan i gCúil Aodha, Co. Chorcaigh. (Raidio na Gaeltachta)
11.45-12.10 Urbi et Orbi. Pope Francis’ Easter Message “to the city and the world” from St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City, with commentary and translation by Michael Kelly. (RTÉ One)
18.00-19.00 The Lyric Feature. Chorus Noster Recolat (Our Chorus Recalls)
The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance at the University of Limerick, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, is a centre which combines excellence in performance with rigour in academia. In Chorus Noster Recolat, JJ O’Shea explores Ireland’s earliest notated music, medieval liturgical chant in the company of some of the Academy’s academic staff and their choral group, Cantoral. The programme, which was made and first broadcast in 2018, includes the final interview with the late Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin who ruminates on this often overlooked area of our musical heritage, its present day revival as it moves from a religious context to the performance stage, and its possibilities for future composition. He also speculates on the nature of the music of the Irish monasteries in the very early medieval period before the origin of notation and before the standardisation imposed on church liturgy by Charlemagne’s reforms in the ninth century. Helen Phelan considers the influence of pre-Christian traditions on early church liturgy which found their way into the chant and together with Anne Mannion she looks at the traces of a uniquely Irish approach to hymn writing that draws upon very early Irish poetic forms. Historian Colmán O Clabaigh gives further context to the material and Limerick based choral group Cantoral perform some of the chant uncovered in the medieval manuscripts. (RTÉ Lyric FM – A J.J.O’Shea production for RTE Lyric FM, funded by the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland’s Sound & Vision Fund.)
